Dear Chairwomen Murray and DeLauro, and Ranking Members Blunt and Cole:
"The undersigned groups are committed to ensuring that our nation’s children receive high-quality, appropriate, and equitable healthcare. A key means of achieving this goal is through laboratory tests that provide objective data to healthcare professionals for evaluating the health status of their young patients.
When making a diagnosis, the healthcare professional considers a laboratory test value within the context of a reference interval – a range of numeric values that would be expected in a healthy individual. If the test result falls outside of the reference interval – either higher or lower – the practitioner may order medical intervention to address the condition. If the diagnosis is incorrect for any reason, including a faulty reference interval, it could result in patient harm. Therefore, it is critical that reference intervals be correct."
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