Read the Latest Issue of STATLINE

May 16, 2017

In This Issue:

On May 9, the Senate—by a 57-42 vote, confirmed Scott Gottlieb, MD—as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As FDA commissioner, Dr. Gottlieb will oversee an agency with regulatory influence over pharmaceuticals and medical devices, in addition to food safety and other areas of human health.

Dr. Gottlieb is a physician and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and has also served as an FDA deputy commissioner under former President George W. Bush's administration, including serving as the deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs under former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan, MD.

Dr. Gottlieb was also a senior policy advisor at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) during the implementation of the Part D drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries.

Recently, Dr. Gottlieb expressed there should be a balance between FDA and CMS on laboratory-developed test oversight that protects patients while maintaining innovation and access.

The commissioner is poised to play a key role in determining how aggressively the agency will be restructured under President Donald Trump's executive orders. One of Dr. Gottlieb's most immediate tasks will be to work alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to craft an agency reform plan. In this plan, agency heads are tasked with considering whether portions of their agencies can be eliminated, merged, or delegated to state or local governments, and whether the agency can withstand workforce reductions, among many other deregulatory proposals.

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In 2018, most pathologists will need to take action to stop penalties from reducing future Medicare payments for their services.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) soon will issue its latest proposed rulemaking that implements provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). On June 7 at 1 PM ET, the CAP will host a 60-minute webinar to discuss the CMS' proposals for participating in the 2018 Medicare Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program, including options for preventing Medicare penalties.

Patrick E. Godbey, MD, FCAP, Chair of the CAP Council on Government and Professional Affairs; Jonathan L. Myles MD, FCAP, Chair, of the CAP Economic Affairs Committee; and Diana Cardona, MD, FCAP, Chair of the CAP Economic Affairs Measures & Performance Assessment Subcommittee, will discuss how these proposed Medicare pay changes under MACRA will affect pathologists in 2018.

Register today.

By registering you will also receive a link to a recording of the presentation following the live event. Registrants will receive the link to the recording even if they are unable to attend the session on June 7.

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The CAP would like to thank the members who completed the 2017 Practice Characteristics Survey. The CAP will use the data collected to help guide its advocacy efforts and to educate policy influencers and health care leaders about the significant role and value of the pathologist in the delivery of patient care.

STATLINE will report on the initial findings soon, and the full report will be released at CAP17.

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