Billing for clinical laboratory services. Cost of diagnostic tests. Financial disclosures to patients. Billing practices re anatomic pathology services - Conn. Gen. Stat. § 20-7a

Any provider who agrees to make payments to clinical laboratories for individual patient tests must disclose this fact on patient bills or bills to third party payors.  The provider must disclose the name of the laboratory, amount charged by the lab, and amount of the procurement or processing fee, if any.  Any person who violates this law will be fined a maximum of $100.  If a provider recommends lab testing to a patient for diagnostic purposes, the provider should inform the patient of the approximate cost. 

Any provider with an ownership interest in an entity that provides diagnostic or therapeutic services or receives compensation for the referral of patients to an entity that provides diagnostic or therapeutic services must disclose this interest to any patient before providing the referral or provide reasonable alternatives.  This information must either be verbally disclosed to patients or provided through posting a conspicuous notice in the provider’s office. 

No person or entity, other than a physician, clinical laboratory, or a referring clinical laboratory may charge or bill for providing anatomic pathology services unless the service was rendered by a supervising physician, clinical laboratory or referring laboratory.  A clinical laboratory or referring laboratory may only solicit payment for anatomic pathology services from the patient, hospital, insurer of a third party payor, or a governmental agency.