Time is running short for laboratories to figure out how they will comply with a federal regulation that for the first time requires all U.S. labs to give patients their test reports within 30 days of request.

With the Oct. 6 deadline for complying with the mandate fast approaching, leaders at two laboratories shared how they are wrestling with the regulation during a July 31 webinar hosted by G2 Intelligence.

A process that at first blush may seem fairly straightforward—patient requests test results, lab hands them over—gets complicated fast. How does a patient request the test reports? How does the lab that conducted the test verify the identity of a patient, or of a patient proxy, who may live in another state? And how should labs handle patients’ access to sensitive test results relating to sexually transmitted infections, or life-changing diagnoses?

My latest in CAP TODAY’s Put It on the Board section. Read the whole shebang.