Email-Only Fee Coupons and Certificates Since March 2026

For most of CLIA's history the fee coupon arrived on paper, at the lab's street address, and someone in accounts payable mailed a check. That is over. CMS's CLIA Certification Quick Start Guide (March 2026) says: "After March 1, 2026, CMS will send all fee coupons and CLIA certificates by email." CMS's CLIA page now puts it more bluntly: "CMS no longer mails paper certificates or fee coupons and no longer accepts paper checks."

Minnesota's CLIA State Agency spelled out the consequence when it warned labs before the switch: "After March 1, 2026, paper fee coupons and CLIA certificates will no longer be available."

What arrives by email now?

• The fee coupon. CMS's application page calls it a fee notification "by email that includes your unique ten-character alpha-numeric CLIA identification number" and the amount due. For a renewal, the Quick Start Guide says labs with a Certificate of Waiver, PPM or Accreditation "will receive a renewal invoice 6 months before their certificate expires." Compliance labs receive a survey fee invoice a year before expiration and a certificate fee invoice after the survey.
• The certificate. It arrives by email after payment, and can be viewed and reprinted online through CMS's QCOR lookup.
• Other CMS notices. CMS asks labs to keep "a valid email address on file to receive these certificates, fee coupons, and other CMS communications electronically."

How do you pay?

On pay.gov, the U.S. Treasury's payment site. CMS accepts bank account (ACH), debit or credit cards, and "your secure payment gets processed overnight." The certificate is not issued until the fee is paid (42 CFR 493.655(a)). Nothing goes in the mail, and the CMS-116 itself says "Do not send any payment with your completed 116 application."

Why does the email field on the CMS-116 matter so much?

Because it is now the only delivery address. The Quick Start Guide says mailing and corporate address fields "are no longer required and may be left blank," and asks for the lab's "most up-to-date EMAIL ADDRESS" so that coupons, certificates and other CMS updates reach the lab. Its tip: use "a business email address that many laboratory staff access and use."

The weak points are easy to predict:

1. A personal inbox. The office manager who filed the application in 2024 has left, and the renewal coupon went to her.
2. A vendor's inbox. A consultant or billing company put its own address on the form. Now the lab depends on someone else to forward its own government mail.
3. A corporate inbox for every site. A group with twenty clinics gets twenty coupons in one mailbox, each tied to a different CLIA number, with no one assigned to match them up.
4. A spam filter. Nobody checks the junk folder of a role mailbox.

An unpaid renewal coupon is not a paperwork problem. A Certificate of Waiver is "valid for no more than 2 years" (493.37(e)(1)), and a site that keeps testing past expiration is testing without a certificate.

How do you fix an outdated email address?

Contact your State Agency. CMS's CLIA page lists "Demographic updates" among the things to take to the State Agency, and the Quick Start Guide says to contact it when "the laboratory's demographics, such as specialties, address, email address" change. CMS's October 2026 special alert, QSSAM-27-01, tells labs to "verify your laboratory's email address is current with CMS to ensure receipt of official electronic CLIA communications." Find your office in your CLIA State Agency.

Does email-only billing create a fraud risk?

It gives look-alikes an opening. The same October 7, 2026 alert reports that labs in several states, including Iowa, Texas and Minnesota, received third-party solicitations "styled as bills or invoices" that "may be mistaken for official CLIA communications." CMS's guidance: "Official CLIA communications come only from CMS or your State Survey Agency," and labs should check "the sender, purpose of the communication, and any requested fees or payment instructions." See look-alike CLIA invoices and how to spot them.

How does renewal tracking help?

White Glove CLIA's Renewal and Compliance Tracking ($299 per year for the first lab, $99 per year per added site; see pricing) keeps a calendar of each certificate's expiration, reminds the lab when its CMS coupon should arrive, and helps staff confirm a coupon is genuine before anyone pays. The coupon still goes to the lab's own inbox and the lab pays it on pay.gov; we never hold the lab's email, pay.gov or state portal logins, and we never send anything that looks like a CMS bill. More in renewing a CLIA certificate.