Supreme Court Stuns: Upholds ACA, Including Individual Mandate
ASCP Will Continue Proactive Stance on Implementation of ACA
In a stunning victory for President Barack Obama, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld almost all of the President’s signature healthcare law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), including its controversial individual mandate. In a decision that rocked the nation, the 5–4 decision, included the support of Chief Justice Roberts, usually a reliably conservative member of the court, along with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayer, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagen. Justice Anthony Kennedy, often a swing vote who many thought would decide the case, voted in the minority, which argued that the ACA is its entirety, not just the individual mandate, was unconstitutional. Read more

ASCP Tells Congress: Self Referral, EHR Meaningful Use Reform Critical
In a May 27 letter to the U.S. House Ways and Means Republican leadership, ASCP outlined several policy recommendations to address the failures of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule’s (PFS) annual update process. If not for Congressional intervention, the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) would regularly impose massive cuts in the PFS. Indeed for 2013, the SGR formula would trim the PFS by approximately one third! Read more

ASCP Opens Institute for Science, Technology, and Policy
The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) recently launched its Institute for Science, Technology & Policy. Housed in Washington, D.C., the Institute is home to the Center for Public Policy and the Center for Science and Technology. Through these Centers, ASCP will foster work in the areas of Evidence-Based Practice, Patient-Centered Outcomes, Health Service Delivery, Precision Diagnostics, New Technology Delivery, Industry Relations, and Scientific Ambassadorship. Read more

ePolicy News Special Edition
On April 10, the influential health policy journal Health Affairs published a study by noted Georgetown University health economist Jean Mitchell, PhD, providing clear evidence that urologists who profit on their referrals for anatomic pathology services overutilize these services. In addition, Dr. Mitchell found that self-referring urologists were less likely to diagnose cancer possibly because “financial incentives prompt self-referring urologists to perform prostate biopsies on men who are unlikely to have prostate cancer.” Read more