Previous Advocacy Updates

The House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees approved legislation to repeal and replace portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The House Energy and Commerce and the Ways and Means committees have scheduled to markup and approve new legislation that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Minnesota has joined a list of states that are taking action to address out-of-network billing by insurers, an issue on which the CAP has worked tirelessly.

Congressman Tom Price, MD (R-GA) was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) by the Senate on February 10, 2017.

Pathologists must take action in 2017 in order to stop their Medicare payments from being cut in 2019 under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from Rep. Tom Price, MD (R-GA) on January 18 and 25 respectfully on his nomination to become the secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The newly inaugurated President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office directing members of his administration to take steps that will facilitate the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The House took a key step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), passing a fiscal 2017 budget resolution on Friday, January 13. The House vote of 227–198 followed Senate passage on Thursday, January 12, by a 51–48 vote.

Republicans have initiated efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Coalition Opposes Balance Billing Proposal in Idaho, DEA Reverses Registration Renewal Process, Applicable Laboratories Must Report PAMA Data

Victory in VA provision to expand Scope of Practice despite concerns with final regulation; CAP advocates for changes to 2017 MACRA Requirements.

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.