(a) For services that are performed at a central laboratory as authorized pursuant to § 1241.1 of the Business and Professions Code, the department shall provide reimbursement directly to the laboratory performing the services and submitting the claim for reimbursement. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a primary care clinic network that utilizes centralized billing from submitting claims on the behalf of the network’s central laboratory, if the claims are submitted with the central laboratory’s provider number. The department shall not deny payment to a laboratory created pursuant to § 1241.1 of the Business and Professions Code, for either of the following reasons:

(1) The clinic and the licensed central laboratory performing the services are owned and operated by the same nonprofit corporation with the same board of directors and the same corporate officers.

(2) The laboratory services are performed on a specimen collected at the clinic for a clinic patient.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow a primary care clinic to submit a separate claim for central laboratory services currently reimbursed under the Medi-Cal program, utilizing the primary care clinic’s provider number.

(c) The department may implement utilization controls or other cost-control measures to ensure that medically necessary services are appropriately rendered.

(d) (1) A primary care clinic licensed pursuant to subdivision (a) of § 1204 of the Health and Safety Code that is affiliated with a network of primary care clinics may continue to submit claims for the laboratory services provided until such time that the primary care clinic receives a provider number for the central laboratory pursuant to this section, if all of the following requirements are met:

(A) The network of primary care clinics is operated by the same nonprofit corporation with the same board of directors and corporate officers.

(B) The primary care clinic operates under the same procedures and protocols as the affiliated clinics in the network, and the laboratory holds a valid Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (42 U.S.C. § 263a) (CLIA) certificate and state laboratory license to perform moderate and high complexity laboratory services.

(C) The of primary care clinic has been providing laboratory testing services for the patients of the primary care clinic within the clinic network prior to August 1, 2006, and has been authorized by Medi-Cal to submit claims for those services.

(2) This subdivision shall remain operative until June 30, 2007.

(Added by Stats. 2006, Ch. 795, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2007.)