Previous Advocacy Updates

The House passed the 21st Century Cures Act and President-elect Trump nominates Rep. Tom Price, MD, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

The first step in UnitedHealthcare's implementation of its laboratory benefit management program in Texas begins in January 2017 with voluntary participation before mandatory compliance is enforced in March.

The CMS will launch the system that applicable laboratories will use to submit private payer data for clinical laboratory tests to the Medicare program on November 14.

Several pathology services targeted as misvalued by the Medicare program maintained their values in the 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule released by the CMS on November 2.

The CAP will collaborate to develop protocols for collection, processing, and analysis of cancer blood samples as part of the Blood Profiling Atlas project within the "Cancer Moonshot" initiative.

Following concerns from the CAP and other organizations, the Medicare program will provide additional flexibility to physicians as it transitions to a new reimbursement system starting in 2017.

Following an initial launch of the laboratory benefit management program in Florida, an insurer announced it will expand the program to include its members enrolled in commercial plans in Texas.

The CAP welcomed the introduction of Senate bill 3392, the Local Coverage Determination Clarification Act, which would improve transparency and accountability when Medicare contractors LCDs.

The CMS released a template that applicable laboratories can use to report private payer rates and associated volume for CLFS services required under the PAMA's new payment system for laboratories.

Medicare should remove discounts applied to add-on codes for IHC and other services, the CAP advocated in its comments on the 2017 fee schedule.

Leading organizations representing pathologists have stated their strong support for the Local Coverage Determination Clarification Act (HR 5721).

According to the latest experience report on the PQRS program, 86.3% of eligible pathologists earned a Medicare bonus by reporting quality measures developed by the CAP.

The CAP applauded the introduction of the Local Coverage Determination Clarification Act to improve transparency and accountability when Medicare contractors set LCD policies.

In the proposed 2017 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, the CMS proposed to maintain value for several pathology codes targeted as misvalued. The CMS also proposed gains for add-on codes used for IHC and FISH services, which the CAP had strongly advocated for in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The CAP advocated for several changes to the proposed MACRA regulation that reflect the value pathologists have on patient care and ensure pathologists can participate in the new payment programs.

The AMA House of Delegates approved a modernized Code of Medical Ethics, which concluded two years of work and deliberation on the code, including input from the CAP.

The CMS delayed until 2018 the implementation of PAMA reforms to the Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule, which requires collection and reporting of private payer data.

The CMS detailed how it plans to implement payment reforms mandated by the MACRA law in a proposed regulation released on April 27.

Precision medicine and medical innovations legislation advanced in the Senate after gaining approval from the Health, Education, Labor, & Pension Committee.

California strengthens patient access to in-network hospital-based physicians, including pathologists in new regulation addressing health plan network adequacy.