HHS Urged to Reinstate Clinical Laboratory Improvements Advisory Committee

The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) urged the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) to reinstate the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Advisory Committee (CLIAC) in a May 14 letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

In a press release, ADLM blamed the elimination of CLIAC for the laboratory medicine community’s loss of “its premier forum for ensuring that the regulations for clinical labs continue to meet the changing needs of the health care community,” especially as many call for the modernization of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA).

CLIAC was chartered by HHS in 1992 and has since provided “scientific and technical advice and guidance” on issues involving CLIA regulations, according to ADLM. Among those issues were testing quality, personnel requirements, and proficiency testing frequency.

The decision to eliminate CLIAC is one part of the aggressive restructuring of the department under the Trump administration. ADLM points out, however, that because the CLIA program is funded by $80 million in user fees from the laboratory community, with a portion of that funding supporting CLIAC, any government cost savings from the elimination would therefore be negligible.

Sources:

https://myadlm.org/media/press-release-archive/2025/05-may/adlm-calls-on-hhs-to-reinstate-essential-committee

https://myadlm.org/advocacy-and-outreach/comment-letters/2025/hhs-cliac-final