PATH News Network Daily Edition

CAP pushes for Medicare payment reform

• College of American Pathologists

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SPEAKER_01

The CAP pushes for Medicare payment reform, why it's important to join the AMA, and updated guidance on peripheral smear review. These stories and more coming up next. This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Friday, May 15th. Pathologists have long raised concerns about Medicare's process for local coverage determination, known as LCD. Inconsistent coverage decisions, limited transparency, and insufficient physician input are common. The CAP supports a bipartisan bill now gaining momentum in Congress that would protect patient access to medically necessary diagnostic testing. It would also prevent avoidable delays and denials while preserving physicians' clinical judgment. The CAP urges members to do their part by telling their representatives to support HR 8500, the Timely Access to Coverage Decisions Act. Be sure to listen Monday for my conversation with a Southeast Michigan pathologist whose advocacy over the years is helping advance another critical piece of legislation, the Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act. The CAP also is encouraging members to join the American Medical Association. The number of delegates the CAP holds in the AMA House of Delegates depends on the number of CAP members who join AMA. So your participation strengthens pathology's voice inside the broader medical community. That can help improve outcomes on issues like Medicare payment, scope of practice, physician-led care, and workforce policy. A stronger presence means pathology is better positioned to protect its role and advocate effectively alongside other specialties. The CAP Foundation has a mission to promote pathology education and science around the world. Its Global Pathology Education Award offers pathologists working in under-resourced areas a complementary membership as an international fellow of the CAP and the CAP ebook subscription. This award is not open to residents. Priority will be given to practicing pathologists in medically under-resourced countries as defined by the World Health Organization. The application deadline is June 16th. Go to foundation.ca.org to apply. And finally, examining a blood smear under a microscope is an age-old pathology technique, but it's still fundamental to the specialty. Peripheral blood smear or PBS tests remain crucial to the diagnosis of leukemia and other blood and bone marrow disorders. But international guidelines for PBS haven't been updated in over 20 years until now. A new paper in the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology presents modernized guidelines for PBS tests written by an international committee that included representatives from the CAP and other international hematology and pathology societies. One member, Dr. Olga Poznakova, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the CAP's Haematology Clinical Microscopy Committee, told us why new guidance was needed.

SPEAKER_00

The technology and understanding of analyzic performance have evolved significantly. The workflows, the one that we have now, they're very different from the ones that we had 20 years ago, and they needed to be adjusted to, first of all, every increasing CBC volumes, which still remains one of the most ordered tests in lab medicine. Also, development of nollotherapies has changed our approaches to peripheral blood smear review.

SPEAKER_01

One example is CAR-T cell infusions, which redefined how typical lymphocytes look like in PBS tests. Another big change involves acute myeloid leukemia. Patients now receive non-intensive therapies that greatly extend lifespans but also affect how their PBS tests should be interpreted. As automation of blood tests increases along with testing volume, it's more important than ever to define what pathologists need to review. The new guidelines focus on how to do that, Dr. Poznakova says.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.