ASCP Advocacy: 2020 Year in Review

The COVID-19 pandemic dominated many of ASCP’s advocacy efforts in 2020, and perseverance helped us achieve significant forward motion for the laboratory. 

ASCP Engagement Influences COVID-19 Response: In March, as the pandemic began sweeping the nation, ASCP worked successfully to expand the network of clinical laboratories that could test for the novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). During the course of ASCP’s advocacy, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in March authorized clinical laboratories outside the public health laboratory network to conduct testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19.

Throughout the year, ASCP maintained regular contact with officials in the White House, HHS, FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). As part of this, ASCP Commission on Science, Technology and Public Policy Chair Gary Procop, MD, MS, MASCP, was tapped to advise the Administration on testing issues via its National Testing Implementation Forum, a forum similar to what ASCP urged be developed during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. ASCP has also been in contact with the Administration regarding a number of issues, including developing a national testing strategy, prioritizing COVID-19 testing and addressing supply and personnel shortages.

ASCP Calls for a National COVID-19 Testing Strategy: Leveraging this bi-directional communication, in April, ASCP called on the federal government to develop a comprehensive COVID-19 Diagnostic Testing Strategy to enable clinical laboratories address the COVID-19 pandemic. ASCP’s advocacy was recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA), which joined ASCP in calling for a national testing strategy. In support of the strategy and related policy recommendations, ASCP released four action alerts resulting in more than 67,000 letters being sent to policymakers. Shortly after unveiling ASCP’s strategy, Congress enacted legislation including several of ASCP’s recommendations and the Trump Administration unveiled its own strategy, which included elements of ASCP’s strategy. During a May CDC National Laboratory Community Call, Dr. Procop was invited to present the ASCP’s Call for National COVID-19 Strategy.

ASCP also urged congressional leadership to support hazard pay and student loan forgiveness—element of ASCP’s National COVID-19 Diagnostic Testing Strategy—and other for clinical laboratory staff and other health professionals who are putting their own health at risk when providing COVID-19 testing or treating COVID-19 positive patients. Throughout the pandemic, ASCP has opposed several efforts to loosen training and supervision requirements pertaining to laboratory medicine.

Advocating Significant Changes to Critical Proposals: Though the COVID-19 pandemic has been at top of mind for so many, there are other challenges facing the laboratory for which ASCP has advocated. ASCP has submitted three comment letters to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, outlining its concerns and recommendations on issues related to payment and quality policies addressed in its Proposed Rule on the Physician Fee Schedule. We have repeatedly urged changes of the Agency’s Evaluation and Management proposal, which could impose draconian cuts in pathology reimbursement rates next year, and its Quality Payment Program, which includes numerous impediments that adversely affect the ability of pathologists to meaningfully participate in the program.

Spearheading Choosing Wisely Recommendations for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine: Since 2012, ASCP been a leader in the Choosing Wisely campaign initiated by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation. As in years past, ASCP has released an updated list of recommendations for laboratory tests that are commonly ordered but not always appropriate in pathology and laboratory medicine as part of this campaign. This year’s list includes five targeted, evidence-based recommendations and expands ASCP’s existing list to 35 recommendations that are designed to support conversations between patients and physicians about what care is really necessary. 

ASCP also recognized a new group of Choosing Wisely Champions in 2020, for their commitment to the Choosing Wisely Campaign and their implementation of the Choosing Wisely initiative in their own practice.

ASCP Identifies Barriers and Facilitators to Strengthen the Clinical Lab Professional Workforce: ASCP and the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies (UW CHWS) partnered on an 18-month project to identify the existing approaches and strategies in place to recruit and retain clinical laboratory technicians and technologists, barriers and facilitators to strengthening the pipeline and current supply of clinical laboratory technicians and technologists in order to meet demand, and outline a blueprint for action to address existing barriers. Funding for this collaboration and its activities has been provided by the Siemens Foundation.

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