BME Proposes Amendments to Screening and Diagnostic Testing Offices

The New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners has proposed amending N.J.A.C. 13:35-2.6 which regulates screening and diagnostic medical testing offices (SDMTOs). The amendment relaxes the regulation to allow SDMTOs more flexibility and clarifies questions and concerns surrounding SDMTOs.

The proposed changes include clarification that a diagnostic test does not need a specific CPT code or that a fee be charged in order for a practitioner to interpret a test or refer a patient to another practitioner to perform a test. The amendment also makes clear that prior language which prohibited billing for a test which “fails to yield data of sufficient clinical value” was not meant to prohibit billing for a test which simply failed to yield data but rather is meant to prohibit billing for diagnostic tests which are not “recognized in the scientific community as being capable of yielding” sufficient data.

The proposed regulation relaxes who may own SDMTOs to include practitioners or closely allied health professionals (defined as an individual licensed to practice a health care profession in New Jersey) as long as the majority interest is held by practitioners authorized to perform and interpret all of the offered tests.