Press Releases

College of American Pathologists (CAP) President R. Bruce Williams, MD, FCAP issued the following statement on the House Ways and Means Committee markup of the Local Coverage Determination Clarification Act (H.R. 3635).

Published today, The College of American Pathologists (CAP) published the 2018 edition of its accreditation program checklists on August 22, 2018, providing medical laboratories a blueprint for maintaining compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations.

Published today, a Focused Update to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)/College of American Pathologists (CAP) guideline for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) testing in breast cancer brings new levels of clarity that will benefit patients and clinical teams alike.

For patients battling lung disease, advances in minimally invasive techniques allow clinicians to now perform multiple ancillary tests on small biopsy specimens. To ensure optimal diagnostic testing and management in these cases, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) is developing an evidence-based clinical guideline.

People are healthier today because of advances in pathology and laboratory medicine. Whether you have a tissue sample examined in a biopsy or get routine blood work, you can trust the expertise behind your results, according to the College of American Pathologists (CAP), which released its 2017 ANNUAL REPORT

“The CAP applauds the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for revising its final national coverage determination (NCD) policy for next-generation sequencing (NGS) to address some of the concerns raised by the CAP and other stakeholders. The implementation of the draft NCD criteria for NGS would have had profound adverse and immediate consequences for Medicare beneficiary access to therapies, and negatively impact the treating physician's ability to order medically necessary tests for patients. While the final NCD nationally covers only approved or U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared tests using NGS, the final determination leaves the local Medicare Administrative Contractor with the discretion to cover all other tests as long as specific patient criteria are met. The expanded criteria include recurrent, relapsed, refractory, metastatic, and advanced stages III or stages IV of cancer.” – CAP President R. Bruce Williams, MD, FCAP

Use of tests that assess genomic variants in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is on the rise. A new joint review from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) provides an assessment of evidence on ctDNA tests in oncology. It also lays out a framework for future research and clinical practice guidelines to help better inform clinical practice.

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) filed an amicus curiae brief in support of a motion by the American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) for summary judgement to set aside how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) implemented market-based reforms to clinical laboratory fees mandated by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) of 2014. The CAP has strongly supported ACLA’s lawsuit against the HHS and efforts to correct the administration’s execution of PAMA’s clinical laboratory payment reforms.

The PATHOLOGISTS QUALITY REGISTRY has been approved as a 2018 Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the second consecutive year, solidifying the tool as an instrumental component for pathologists in fulfilling reporting requirements under Medicare's Quality Payment Program (QPP) Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Developed by pathologists for pathologists, the Pathologists Quality Registry offers additional pathology-specific quality measures and attestation for improvement activities, helping pathologists demonstrate quality care while maximizing Medicare payment bonus potential.

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) has published the second edition of the leading reference text for peripheral blood pathology, the Color Atlas of Hematology. Updated, expanded content builds on the original edition, but adds mixed-media content across more than 400 highly visual pages, many with images linked digitally to virtual peripheral blood smears, allowing the reader to view them as they would appear under a microscope. Other links take the user to educational videos from the authors.