A2LA is a non-profit, non-governmental, public service, membership society. It was founded around 1978 but has only been accrediting medical laboratories for approximately four years. On March 25, 2014, CMS approved A2LA as an Accredited Organization for the accreditation of clinical laboratories for all specialties and subspecialties under CLIA. In addition to the accreditation of clinical laboratories, A2LA offers programs for the accreditation of inspection bodies, proficiency testing providers, reference material producers, and product certification bodies. It is the only U.S.-based accreditation organization that is peer-evaluated and internationally recognized as competent to perform assessments to the full ISO 15819:2012 standard.
