Advocacy Update

• Pathologists Hold Capitol Hill Briefing to Encourage Congressional Intervention on Final FDA Rule
• MIPS-eligible Clinicians Can Review Final Score Previews for 2023 Performance
• How will FDA’s LDT Rule Impact Your Laboratory and Patients? Share Your Story!
• Register Today! Proposed 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Webinar
• Take Our News Quiz for July

During a Capitol Hill briefing for congressional staffers that took place July 9, the CAP discussed how Congress can promote patient safety without overburdening laboratories through enacting a diagnostic reform package that provides oversight of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) while still allowing for innovation of new technologies and patient access to accurate testing. The Capitol Hill briefing featured top pathologists from around the country who provided background on LDTs and answered questions from congressional staffers.

Donald Karcher, MD, FCAP, the CAP’s President and Joe Saad, MD, FCAP, President, Surgical Pathologists of Dallas presented congressional staff with CAP’s concerns that the FDA is moving forward with its regulatory oversight plan for LDTs without making the additional changes needed to ensure both patient safety and access to accurate and innovative testing.

The physicians explained what LDTs are and why they are important, the impact of the FDA’s diagnostic rule on the provision of LDTs and patient testing, and why congressional intervention through legislation like the Verifying Accurate Leading-Edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act, not the FDA final rule, provides the necessary oversight to ensure safe, quality laboratory tests for all patients. Read the press release here. For more information visit the CAP’s Laboratory-Developed Test Oversight webpage.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released final score previews, providing MIPS eligible clinicians an opportunity to check their final score before the release of payment adjustment information. As a reminder, final scores for the calendar year 2023 performance period (2023 final scores) will determine adjustments to your 2025 Medicare payments. During the Final Score Preview, performance feedback will display data associated with the final score attributed to the individual clinician or group, and all the data required to calculate final scores including category-level scores and weights, bonus points and improvement scoring, and measure-level data.

MIPS-eligible clinicians and groups should log in to their QPP accounts to view their scores and contact the QPP Service Center (qpp@cms.hhs.gov) with any questions.

Do you anticipate the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) laboratory-developed test final rule creating unnecessary burdens for pathologists or negatively impacting patients’ lives, innovation, or the economy on your community? Your story could be used to help legislators understand how the oversight of tests should be based on protecting patients and providing access to safe diagnostic tests with a framework that is the least burdensome for laboratories. Click on the link below, fill out the form, and tell us more.

https://collegeofamericanpathologists-web.formstack.com/forms/ldt_story_generation

On Tuesday, July 30 at Noon ET/ 11 AM CT, the CAP is offering a complementary live webinar where CAP experts will review proposed 2025 Medicare payment regulations, including the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and the Quality Payment Program regulations, that will impact Medicare payment for services and pathologists’ participation in the quality initiatives. Webinar presenters will be the Council on Government and Professional Affairs Chair A. Joe Saad, MD, CPE, FCAP; Economic Affairs Committee Chair Ronald McLawhon, MD, PhD, FCAP; and Quality and Clinical Data Registry Affairs Committee Chair Gregary Bocsi, DO, FCAP.

Secure your attendance today.

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