Staffing Action

The nation's laboratory workforce has been shrinking for decades, a trend that has become more acute since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. AACC has been an advocate for modernizing CLIA regulations to help address the need for laboratory personnel. In the position statement Modernization of CLIA: Moderate and High Complexity Testing, the association further outlines several recommendations to address this issue and calls on policymakers to take action:

• Congress should provide federal funding to increase the number of Medical Laboratory Scientists (MLS) who are vital to performing and ensuring quality patient testing.

   

• AACC supports the creation of alternative pathways to qualify individuals to serve as testing personnel if they can demonstrate equivalency with the current requirements.

   

• Policymakers should allocate funding to hospitals and/or reference laboratories that provide clinical testing rotations to students from medical laboratory scientist programs.

   

• Legislators should create a loan forgiveness program for clinical laboratory professionals willing to work in underserved areas for a specified period, potentially further incentivizing individuals to enter the field.