Reminder: CLIA numbers must be submitted for most lab tests

When billing for laboratory tests, you must include your Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments certification number for any services that aren’t CLIA-waived. You should use the QW modifier for CLIA-waived tests and submit it in the first modifier field.

Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendments regulate laboratory testing. They require that clinical labs be certified by the state, as well as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, before they can accept samples for diagnostic testing.

A certificate of waiver under CLIA is only granted to a lab that has performed a simple test like the glucose meter test. These are tests that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined are at little risk for error.

For more details, see the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments page** of the CMS.gov** website.

**Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan doesn’t own or control this website.