1 min read

Updates Announced for 2025 Specimen Collection Fees and Travel Allowance Payments

Updates Announced for 2025 Specimen Collection Fees and Travel Allowance Payments

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made updates to specimen collection fees and travel allowance payments for 2025.

Effective Jan. 1, the general specimen collection fee increased from $8.83 to $9.09. The general specimen collection fee increased to $11.09 for those specimens collected by a trained technician from a Medicare patient at a skilled nursing facility or by a laboratory on behalf of a home health agency.

The travel allowance mileage rate has been updated to $1.20. The flat-rate travel allowance, applied when a trained technician travels 20 miles or less to one location for one or more Medicare patients, is calculated by multiplying the travel allowance mileage rate by 10 and then dividing by the number of all eligible Medicare patients.

Travel allowances are only paid when specimens are collected from a homebound patient or an inpatient at a facility other than a hospital. Travel allowance-eligible miles are calculated beginning at the laboratory or the point of departure for the trained technician to travel for specimen collection purposes and ending at the destination where the specimen collection takes place. Laboratories may maintain electronic documentation of miles traveled to cover transportation and personnel expenses of these trained technicians.

Source:

https://www.cms.gov/files/document/mm13947-travel-allowance-fees-specimen-collection-2025-updates.pdf

A logo with the letters 'HD' for 'HealthDay'

TELCOR Promotions - June 2026

TELCOR Promotions - June 2026

Lincoln, NE – June 2026 TELCOR is proud to announce the of promotion Haley Wagner to Front-End Services Lead, RCS.

Read More
Key Revisions Finalized for Federal IDR Processes Under No Surprises Act

Key Revisions Finalized for Federal IDR Processes Under No Surprises Act

The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury and the Office of Personnel Management released a final rule May 28 to improve the...

Read More
Stay Compliant with CMS and the New ABN Requirements

Stay Compliant with CMS and the New ABN Requirements

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued an updated version of the Advance Beneficiary Notice of Noncoverage (ABN).

Read More