To prepare for the CAP’s annual Hill Day, CAP members discussed strategies for how they will engage their members of Congress at the Pathologists Leadership Summit on May 2. CAP Advocacy leaders prepared pathologists to lobby Congress on three main policies affecting the specialty: stopping Medicare cuts to pathology services, resolving workforce shortage issues, and preventing future pandemics.

In her opening remarks, CAP President Emily E. Volk, MD, FCAP, passionately described the importance of pathologists advocating for their profession and educating legislators on the impact of their payment policies.

“Our ability to practice medicine and serve patients can be significantly impacted by our congressional representatives' laws and policies. It is up to us to let them know how congressional decisions affect our laboratories and our patients. No one can explain our medical policy concerns better than us provide the texture, color and flesh that only we as pathologists can bring,” Dr. Volk said. “We must continually remind policymakers and others that we pathologists are physicians who practice clinical medicine, and what we do is critical to the care of patients. The foundation of all modern clinical medicine.”

Council of Government and Professional Affairs Chair Jonathan Myles, MD, FCAP, provided an overview of the current political landscape, the CAP’s advocacy agenda, updates on implementation of the No Surprises Act, private-sector advocacy, and the Hill Day asks for participants. Dr. Myles also answered questions about the political landscape, the impact of MACRA on physician payment, and current CAP-backed legislation.

Dr. Myles along with David Gang, MD, FSAC, Chair of Federal and State Affairs Committee; Diana Cardona, MD, FSAC, Chair of the Quality and Clinical Data Registry Affairs Committee; and Stephen Black-Schaffer, MD, FCAP, Chair of the Economic Affairs Committee answered questions regarding the current advocacy issues facing pathologists. These issues include MACRA reform, laboratory-developed tests, reimbursement issues and possible Medicare cuts.

On May 3, a record-breaking number of CAP members signed up to legislators to:

• Extend the 3% provider relief provided in the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act for 2023 until that process is complete.
• Cosponsor the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2021 (S 834/HR 2256).
• Cosponsor the Senate PREVENT Pandemics Act, S. 3799.

Advocacy Update will provide more coverage of the Pathologists Leadership Summit in the next issue.