Previous Advocacy Updates

The CAP commended the Washington state law that will protect patients from surprise out-of-network medical bills.

The White House hosts event on Surprise Medical Bills and the CAP continues to advocate to protect patients.

CAP members made an impact on health policy by meeting with their federal legislators to advocate for patients and the pathology specialty in Washington, DC.

CAP members came to Washington, DC, to advocate how Medicare should reimburse clinical laboratory tests and to protect patients from surprise medical bills.

At the 2019 Policy Meeting, CAP members will go to Capitol Hill to advocate for policies that protect patients from surprise medical bills and ensure an accurate, market-based payment system for laboratories paid through the Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule.

As part of legislation enacted in 2018 to address the opioid crisis, Congress included the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act in the final bill.

The CAP is concerned about inconsistent guidance from the National Correct Coding Initiative Policy Manual that affects payment for laboratory tests.

The CAP urged the CMS to change its NCD policy implementation on NGS for patients with advanced cancer and continues to engage with the CMS.

By using CAP-developed quality measures in 2017, the vast majority of pathologists stopped a 4% Medicare penalty and optimized their Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) scores to earn positive adjustments to their payments in 2019.

The CAP urged the CMS to include a flexible process that allows for evolving cancer therapy technologies and to ensure recognition of the lifesaving role that pathologists play in the CAR T-cell treatment process.

Still haven’t reported improvement activities for MIPS? The CAP has resources to help members report using the Medicare’s improvement activities attestation portal. And the CAP supports federal agencies for a taskforce to help combat global health outbreaks with critical diagnostic tests.

The CAP urges the CMS to reconsider their updated pathology equipment and supplies structure because it does not reflect the proper product, quantity, or unit of measure associated with medical test.

The CAP, along with laboratory industry groups, requested a meeting with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to discuss strong disagreements with a recent GAO report concerning new Medicare payment rates for clinical laboratory services as mandated by PAMA.

The CAP advocates with FDA for broader labeling of companion diagnostics to help protect pathologists. Working to ensure patient care is guided by the best test available, the CAP engaged with the FDA in support of broader labeling of companion diagnostics.

The CAP asks CMS to reconsider coverage changes to NGS-based tests and April 2 is the last day to attest to Improvement Activities and avoid a penalty.

The CAP lists key congressional committee leaders important to Pathologists and for 2019 Data Collection, the CMS updates PAMA laboratory requirements.

Pathologists’ Medicare services get covered and paid during government shutdown and recurring PathPAC donation option still available to CAP members.

The CAP improves changes to Medicare's Shared Savings Program to help protect pathologists and CMS updates QPP login credentials.

The CMS approves Pathologists Quality Registry with more quality measures for 2019 and the CAP fights for more flexibility for Pathologists in QPP.

The CAP files legal brief calling on court to set aside PAMA rates and CMS releases 2019 CLFS rates.