Wednesday, June 12, 2024

CMS Closes Building: REDDIT Says "Legionnaire's"

CMS Lab Meeting Agenda

CMS has 130 total agenda items for its June 25, 2024 annual public comment meeting on new lab test pricing.   Stakeholders submitted 55 separate presentations which will be crammed in from 9 am to 5 pm on the day (6 am to  2 pm PT).    Read the five-page agenda (presenter list) here:

https://www.cms.gov/files/document/june-25-2024-clfs-public-meeting-agenda-v2.pdf

CMS had planned a "hybrid" meeting - on site & video - but the on site meeting is canceled.   The CMS lab website says "The CMS complex is closed due to an unforeseen issue."

Reddit Says "Legionella"

According to Reddit, the CMS site is closed due to Legionairres disease.


I don't have any independent confirmation beyond Reddit, but it's believable enough.  We know from CMS the building is closed, and for an extended time, and there aren't alot of things that will do that.   (Termites?  Carbon monoxide?)

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CMS allocates presentation time 9:20-12:00 and 12:45-5;00.  This is 2h40m and 4h15m or 6h55m.   CMS gives each of 53 presenters 10 minutes, which would be 530 minutes or 8h50m.  
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Six codes in the 814xx series (comprehensive genomic profiling) are under reconsideration, but don't seem to have any public commenters.   I think I heard at a meeting that if CMS got no public comment on those codes, it would drop them from reconsideration.  Not sure about that.  The codes are also currently in the national gapfill process, based on last year's CMS decisions.