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- CAP Urges CMS to Remove Local Coverage Determination Policies that Limit Scope of Practice
The CAP and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) have expressed great concern about a local coverage determination (LCD) that improperly interferes with anatomic pathologist’s scope of practice and attempts to define the practice of medicine. The LCD imposes restrictions, as a condition of coverage, as to the subspecialty qualifications of those who can order certain tests. On March 1, CAP and AMP sent a joint letter[T(1] to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requesting that the subspecialty requirement in the MolDX: Molecular Assays for the Diagnosis of Cutaneous Melanoma LCD be removed immediately. The requirement states that any molecular test approved for coverage under the LCD must be ordered by a board-certified or board-eligible dermatopathologist. The groups further urged the CMS to work with its Medicare Administrative Contractors to ensure that local coverage policies in the future do not improperly limit the scope or define the practice of medicine by board-certified pathologists. Read more about the Medicare Local Coverage Program. Link to PDF [T(1]
The CAP and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) have expressed great concern about a local coverage determination (LCD) that improperly interferes with anatomic pathologist’s scope of practice and attempts to define the practice of medicine. The LCD imposes restrictions, as a condition of coverage, as to the subspecialty qualifications of those who can order certain tests.
On March 1, CAP and AMP sent a joint letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requesting that the subspecialty requirement in the MolDX: Molecular Assays for the Diagnosis of Cutaneous Melanoma LCD be removed immediately. The requirement states that any molecular test approved for coverage under the LCD must be ordered by a board-certified or board-eligible dermatopathologist. The groups further urged the CMS to work with its Medicare Administrative Contractors to ensure that local coverage policies in the future do not improperly limit the scope or define the practice of medicine by board-certified pathologists.
Read more about the Medicare Local Coverage Program.