Advocacy Update

• Pathologists Send 1,400 Messages to Congress to Stop Medicare Cuts
• CAP, Physician Groups Rally Support for Medicare Fix
• Conrad 30 Bill Reintroduced to Address Physician Shortages
• Connecticut Pathologists Push for Medicaid Increase
• HHS to End Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking for Certain Announcements
• Executive Order: Health Care Price Transparency
• CDC Updates on Measles, Flu Outbreaks
• Register for HOD/PLS 2025
• Register for the CAP's Fourth LDT Webinar by March 20
• Advocacy News: Now Also Available on LinkedIn

Hundreds of CAP members have responded to a CAP PathNET Action Center alert urging federal lawmakers to reverse 2025 payment cuts to Medicare services.

A total of 1,404 messages from 451 CAP members were sent using the PathNET grassroots platform.

Pathologists can still ask Congress to reverse the 2025 Medicare cuts as the CAP lobbies representatives and senators to act on this important issue this month. Your messages re-enforce the need for Congress to enact legislation that increases Medicare payment as soon as possible.

The CAP and dozens of organizations representing a million physicians called on House and Senate leaders to enact Medicare payment reform.

In a February 28 letter, the physician groups encouraged congressional leaders to cosponsor and support the passage of HR 879, the bipartisan Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. This bipartisan bill will stop the latest round of payment cuts and provide physicians with a much-needed two percent payment increase.

The CAP continues advocating for short-term and long-term payment reforms and will update members as more information becomes available.

To address physician shortages throughout the country, federal lawmakers reintroduced a bipartisan bill to allow qualified international medical graduates (IMGs) to stay in the United States and serve in underserved communities.

Reintroduced in the House by Reps. David Valadao (CA-22), Brad Schneider (IL-10), Don Bacon (NE-02), and Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), and in the Senate by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), the Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Reauthorization Act (HR 1518/S 709) would reauthorize and modify the Conrad 30 program, which allows foreign doctors studying in the United States under a J-1 visa to circumvent a two-year home country requirement following medical residency, and instead begin providing necessary patient care immediately.

Addressing workforce shortages and meeting growing patient care demands continues to be an advocacy priority for the CAP.

The CAP will continue tracking this legislation and provide updates as they become available.

The Connecticut Society of Pathologists (CSP) is urging state lawmakers to increase Medicaid funding in the next budget.

The CSP, with support from the CAP, submitted testimony in opposition to the Connecticut governor's proposed budget for the state Medicaid program. The governor’s proposal was "grossly insufficient and will impair Medicaid access for patients," the CSP said.

The CSP, the Connecticut State Medical Society, and other specialties, are supporting a proposal from Democratic legislative leaders to allocate $250 million over a four-year period for physician rate increases. "We think the legislative leader proposal recognizes that current Connecticut payment rates for physician services in the state Medicaid program are egregiously insufficient and inequitable, given that these increases would come after nearly two decades of Connecticut budget inaction on rate increases for physician services," the CSP said.

A 2024 state Medicaid analysis found that payment rates for pathology and laboratory services, among other physician services surveyed, in Connecticut were all substantially below Medicare rates and "abysmally below average when compared with other state Medicaid programs" according to the CSP.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will forego public commenting for regulations concerning public property, loans, grants, benefits, and contracts, the department said on February 28.

HHS will apparently retain public commenting for other rulemaking activities like the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

The CAP is analyzing the February 28 announcement and determining its full impact on regulations affecting the pathology specialty and laboratories.

The White House is renewing an effort to increase the transparency of prices for health care services. As was first proposed several years ago, President Donald J. Trump has now directed the departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor to ensure hospitals and insurers disclose actual prices for medical services instead of releasing estimates for services.

The original regulations, finalized between 2019 and 2020, require hospitals to maintain a consumer-friendly display of pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services, and a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for its services. They also impose requirements on health plans.

The executive order signed on February 25 also directs the departments to update enforcement policies to ensure hospitals and insurers are in compliance with statutory requirements to make prices transparent to the public. In a communication from February 28, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) commented that "consistent with standing CMS policies, non-compliance will be addressed with swift enforcement." See a list of enforcement actions to date and see a list, updated quarterly, of enforcement activities and their outcomes undertaken by the CMS since the January 1, 2021, effective date.

The CAP previously commented on both proposed regulations - the hospital price transparency and the transparency in coverage regulations. In general, the CAP agrees that patients must be able to make informed decisions about their health care, and we understand how access to price information prior to services may be useful for patients. However, the CAP is concerned about risks for patient harm from any delays and difficulty in determining the cost of pathology services in advance of services conducted by the pathologist.

Additional resources available:

• Hospital Price Transparency Tools
• Data Dictionary GitHub Repository
• For any questions related to hospital price transparency, email PriceTransparencyHospitalCharges@cms.hhs.gov.

Reports and trends on disease outbreaks in the United States are being updated on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Influenza

The CDC publishes a weekly influenza surveillance report online. The February 22 weekly report showed seasonal flu activity was elevated but is trending downward after decreases over two consecutive weeks.

Bird Flu

According to the CDC A(H5N1) bird flu report on February 26, risk of the disease remains low to the general public but people working on dairy cow or poultry farms remain at greater risk of infection. Bird flu has killed one person and infected 70 individuals in the United States.

Measles

The CDC recorded 164 measles cases in 2025 from nine states: Alaska, California, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas. Most of those cases are connected to three specific outbreaks. One child in Texas has died from the disease.

Have you registered for the spring House of Delegates/Pathologists Leadership Summit? Join the CAP April 26–29 in Washington, DC, as pathologists from across the nation make their voices heard on key policy issues under consideration in Congress. There will also be interactive sessions and panel discussions, networking opportunities, and more.

Register online

While we await a final ruling on the laboratory-developed tests, the CAP is committed to preparing members, customers, and laboratories for the change.

Join the CAP on Thursday, March 20, at 1:00 PM ET for the fourth webinar in our laboratory-developed tests series. Gain a better understanding on the necessary steps to comply with the FDA's Stage 1 rule for quality system complaints.

This webinar will guide you through the new requirements, focusing on practical solutions tailored for laboratories. Presenters are Bobbi S. Pritt, MD, MSc, FCAP, Deeona R. Gaskin, JD, MPH, and Earle S. Collum, MD, FCAP.

Register online

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