Fullerton Lab Decertified for Errors on Pap Smears

U.S. health officials said Monday that they have decertified National Cancer Screening Laboratories--a Fullerton medical lab that has done work for some Planned Parenthood chapters around the United States--for allegedly misdiagnosing Pap smear samples.

The Health Care Financing Administration informed National Cancer in a letter dated March 30 that Medicare and Medi-Cal programs would no longer pay for Pap smears done at the firm, which shut down operations last week.

Harry Barba, HCFA’s associate regional administrator in San Francisco, said the number of alleged misdiagnoses at National Cancer was unacceptable by federal quality control standards. He refused to release specifics until the lab has an opportunity to study the government’s findings but said the percentage of misdiagnoses is “a substantial number.”

The Pap smear is a medical test regularly used by doctors to detect cervical cancer.

National Cancer owner Neil Gregory said he stands behind the quality of the Pap smears analyzed by his firm “100%” and accused federal and state officials of harassment. “There is a lot of politics involved in this,” Gregory said. “It’s a witch hunt.”

Gregory said he closed National Cancer last week because the company was no longer profitable. “Over the last 10 months, we’ve been winding down the business,” Gregory said. “The business is very, very competitive and the profit margins are very narrow.”

National Cancer is the second Pap smear lab in California to be decertified by U.S. officials. Central Pathology Medical Service in Tarzana, the nation’s largest Pap smear lab, lost Medicare and Medi-Cal funding early last year and was shut down by the state.

Under a law effective Jan. 1, the state Department of Health Services will be required to suspend National Cancer’s medical license.