ASCP and BOC Work to Address Restrictive State Licensure Issues

ASCP and the ASCP Board of Certification (BOC) has been working to address several concerns regarding state licensure, workforce and COVID-19 response. ASCP and the BOC recently wrote New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to voice concern about an executive order (EO) that supposedly provides flexibility in hiring laboratory personnel. ASCP and the BOC raised concern about the State Department of Education’s interpretation that the EO only allows laboratories to hire unlicensed laboratory personnel for the purposes of providing COVID-19 diagnostic or screening tests. These laboratory professionals would still have to satisfy CLIA high complexity requirements. ASCP and the BOC raised concern that the EO’s highly restrictive scope of practice does not provide sufficient flexibility to enable clinical laboratories to hire qualified, though unlicensed personnel to assist with COVID-19 testing.

In our letter to the Governor, the ASCP and BOC also urged that the state help facilitate the permanent licensure of ASCP-certified laboratory personnel aiding the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New York’s licensure requirements can be extraordinarily challenging.

Additionally, the ASCP and BOC have been working with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to help them navigate state licensure requirements and hire ASCP certified laboratory professionals to assist with the city’s efforts to expand its COVID-19 test capacity.  At present, NYC’s Public Health Laboratory is seeking to fill a number of key laboratory positions.  Individuals interested in employment opportunities there can use the City’s application portal is: https://a127-jobs.nyc.gov/ and type in “PHL” (MUST BE ALL CAPS) to access the public health laboratory positions.  Interested applicants are encouraged an email to recruit@health.nyc.gov to alert the recruiting office to help expedite and coordinate the hiring process.

In addition, ASCP and the BOC recently wrote Tennessee Department of Health Director Lisa Piercey. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee had recently released an executive order that waived Tennessee’s clinical laboratory licensure requirements and would have allowed laboratories to hire individuals with only a bachelor’s degree in chemistry to biology (no training requirement). ASCP and the BOC noted that as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, clinical laboratories saw testing volume plummet and the result was that a number of qualified laboratory personnel were subsequently furloughed. ASCP argued that Tennessee should support its licensed laboratory workforce and give them preference in hiring. That said, if the demands for laboratory professionals exceed Tennessee’s licensed laboratory workforce, ASCP and the BOC urged that the state provide flexibility on state licensure requirements first to certified laboratory personnel, as relying on untrained personnel would slow the state’s COVID-19 response.

ASCP and the BOC response here follows up on an earlier advocacy effort to contact every state governor and health director to raise awareness about the role of certified laboratory personnel in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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For more information regarding ASCP's advocacy initiatives and policy positions, please contact ASCP's Center for Public Policy at (202) 408-1110.

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