PATH News Network Daily Edition

A Better No Surprises Process

• College of American Pathologists

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0:00 | 5:43
SPEAKER_01

Improvements to the No Surprises rule, a prostate cancer discovery, and a CAP member's memorable Hill Day. This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Friday, June 5th. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published its final rule updating the No Surprises Act. The final rule includes improvements that the CAP has long supported to reform the independent dispute resolution or IDR process. The process will now be centralized through a federal IDR portal, creating a more standard and transparent system. The new rule also includes greater flexibility for batching of claims. That's especially important for specialties like pathology that provide services reimbursed at lower rates because practices will now be able to combine more claims into a single submission. Now that the final rule has been published, the CMS will begin implementing the updated IDR process in the coming months. Researchers at Columbia University have found the gene responsible for neuroendocrine prostate cancer, or NEPC, according to a study in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. NEPC is a later stage of prostate cancer that's particularly dangerous because it's resistant to androgen deprivation therapy, the standard treatment for prostate cancer. The researchers identified the gene SIRT1 as the likely culprit by screening 75 different genes and testing their effect on NEPC markers. They then found that inhibiting SIRT1 significantly decreased NEPC tumor growth in mice. If further testing confirms that targeting SIRT1 reduces NEPC in humans, it could lead to the development of improved treatments for this deadly disease. Ready to hone your AI skills? Join the CAP's webinar on AI and machine learning tools for pathology next week. The live webinar will be presented twice on Tuesday, June 9th at 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Central Time. The session will focus on how to validate, implement, and monitor AI applications for pathology with a lab-based example. The presenter is Dr. Nicholas Spees, Medical Director in Applied AI and Clinical Chemistry at ARIP Laboratories in Salt Lake City. He's also an assistant professor of pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and a member of the CAP's AI Committee. A recording of the webinar will be available after the event. Finally, advocating for pathology is most effective when doctors can make a connection with policymakers before talking policy. One of our members really took that to heart when meeting with U.S. Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan.

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Dr.

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Gar of Sharma, Vice Chair of Clinical Pathology at Henry Ford Health in Detroit and president of the Wayne County Medical Society, tells the story.

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And at that point, I presented her with a sketch that my daughter, who is an uh who is an artist, uh, as she describes herself, uh, made for her. That is one of her talents. And I really encouraged this because I feel that children of her age should have the right role models. And I encouraged her to see the senator as a role model. When the senator saw the sketch that my daughter had made, she loved it. And a few weeks later, she sent back a letter praising her for her efforts, which, if you imagine, made my daughter incredibly proud.

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A few months later, in April, Dr. Sharma joined pathologists from around the country at the CAP's Hill Day. Senator Slotkin recognized him, and he gave her a new sketch by his preteen daughter, this one of the senator speaking at a podium. Senator Slotkin was thrilled and posed for a photo holding the artwork. The warm encounter broke the ice for the CAP's Michigan delegation to meet with the senator and her healthcare staff to talk policy.

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So, this is what advocacy is. It could be personal, it could be authentic, and it could be grounded in new relationships. So through the CAP, these opportunities truly matter.

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That's all for today. For more information on today's stories, check the show notes. And if you've got a story we should be covering, write to us at stories at CAP.org. We'll be back Monday at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of the Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great weekend.