CAP Wins Big at AMA; Visa Advocacy | PATH News Network Daily Edition

Description

November 25, 2025

AMA backs CAP-led policy targeting deceptive marketing by training programs

Ask Congress to support the RESULTS ACT

Conrad 30

CY 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program Webinar

Exempt physicians from J-1 visa changes, CAP says

Medical coalition seeks J-1 visa protections for physicians

Medical groups to Congress: Protect H-1B physicians

Navigating Visa Challenges Webinar

Navigating the Visa Process as a Pathology Resident

Win at the AMA: Pathology seeks to end health plan 'steering' tactics

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Brittani Riddle
The CAP scores major wins with the AMA at its annual meeting, plus how to navigate work visas, coming up next on the Path News Network. Welcome to the Path News Network Daily Edition, powered by the College of American Pathologists. Today is Tuesday, November 25th. I'm Brittani Riddle. Here's the latest news. The CAP won multiple victories at this year's American Medical Association's House of Delegates interim meeting. The AMA adopted two CAP-introduced resolutions. The first will stop health plan in-network steering of pathology and laboratory services. The second will prohibit deceptive advertising by educational programs to train healthcare professionals and other non-physicians. The CAP and the Pathology Section Council advocated for both measures, which are now AMA policies. The CAP's advocacy efforts remain strong in the fight against payment cuts. The CAP is urging Congress to stop Medicare's proposed 2.5% efficiency adjustment and additional cuts of up to 15% on tests under the Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule. CAP members can support this work by encouraging their federal lawmakers to back the Results Act, legislation that would block these cuts and establish a new approach for determining clinical lab fees. Use our Action Center to send a message and urge Congress to permanently fix these Medicare cuts. Do you have questions about the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Final Rule? CAP experts have answers. Learn how the rule will affect you and your labs at our upcoming webinar on December 5th at 3 p.m. ET. You can register using the link in the show notes. Finally, navigating visas can often be a challenge for medical residents and fellows. Joining me today to discuss what students should know is Dr. Neha Varshney, gastrointestinal pathologist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Varshney, thank you so much for joining me today. So can you elaborate on the different visa options that are available to medical students and fellows?
Dr. Neha Varshney
Yeah, so there are a lot of them. So it depends. They're different. Let me start from the beginning. There are different types of visas, H-1 and J-1. And then there is also an O-1 visa where people can do, where residents can do the residency or fellowships. Most common one being J-1 visa because that's easier, I think. So most of the people have the J-1 visa program. H-1 program does not need any kind of waiver. So you can directly go from one H-1 to another H-1. So some universities don't offer that, but whoever supports that, you can just directly go to H-1. So that's usually not an issue. And then you have a J-1 visa, which basically means that you have to either do a waiver job, which specifically means like for three years, either you have to work in an underserved area. Or you have to go back to your country for two years and work there and then you can come back on an H-1. So that's a different kind of takeout. So it's a little different. It gets a little complicated. And then so in order to do the waivers, you have different kind of waiver programs. So the most common and most rampant one is Conrad 30, which is given from like every state does that. It has 30 positions. It's different for every state. So. You have to see what are the criteria. Like some places are lottery system. Some places only give first to primary care and then give it to subspecialist. Pathologists are considered under the subspeciality category, the pathology. But so that becomes a little challenging in some of the states. Some of the states don't differentiate. It's first come first serve basis. So you kind of have to navigate that when you are applying. So you need to know what the criteria is in that state you are looking into. So it can get a little tricky. Then you have the other thing, which it is, so it has a limit of 30 days. Excuse me, not 30 days, 30 spots. And 30 spots, and then it has a time limit. So every state has a time, like some have like 1st of September, some have 1st of October, things like that. So that gets very tricky because you're just starting a fellowship. and if the timeline is so early, can get difficult.
Brittani Riddle
There are a lot of different options. As you mentioned, there's H-1B, there's J-1. Where does one even begin to navigate the different options that are available?
Dr. Neha Varshney
So when you apply as a medical student, right, so you apply to different universities, depends on the university, what they offer. Also for H-1, you have to have your step three results by that time. So that's the only way you will get H1. So your step three is done. And if they offer you can get H-1. If not, then you automatically go on J1.
Brittani Riddle
So how does the visa program address workforce challenges in the US, particularly in rural and underserved communities?
Dr. Neha Varshney
So right now there is a huge shortage of pathologists already and in next 10 to 15 years it's going to get massive. So if we are not, if you're letting people go back to their countries, like you know they're trained here, they have got the good education here and they're smart people, you're letting them go back then and with the shortage is going to get even more challenging and especially in the rural area. So I worked in Mississippi. Majority of the people working at university were on J-1. Some of the really underserved areas, it's really hard to hire. And this would be a very, like, it's a very good way to hire that workforce who need the visa waiver. And so it's win-win for both for the parties in a way.
Brittani Riddle
Can you talk about the CAP's advocacy efforts around visas?
Dr. Neha Varshney
A big portion, a big chunk is... from pathologists who need waivers. So we are trying to work, CAP is actively trying to work on it. There are a lot of, you know, the incoming president itself, he was on J-1, Dr. Zhai. So we are all trying to work on that so that we can help them. I don't know how much legally we can do, but at least we are trying to make sure that we give them enough, you know, information and awareness so that they can figure that out and help them navigate it. So we are working on different panels. We have done several webinars on it. I wrote a blog a couple years ago, I think, on that as well. So we are trying to do as much as possible. And we are trying to help the residents. So we work with RFEC. So I'm on the new in practice committee. So new in practice, we also, you know, have fellows in our thing so it's very it's something which is very um kind of a crossover between RFEC and New in Practice Committee. So we are trying to work with RFEC as well and doing all these things and helping them out basically. So CAP is very active and trying to and very, very supportive.
Brittani Riddle
Awesome. And we'll be sure to include all of the resources in today's show notes. That's all for today on the Path News Network Daily Edition. Thank you again to my guest, Dr. Varshney for joining me. Find more about all of today's stories in the show notes and our member newsletters. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern Time. Have a great day.

Description

November 25, 2025

AMA backs CAP-led policy targeting deceptive marketing by training programs

Ask Congress to support the RESULTS ACT

Conrad 30

CY 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program Webinar

Exempt physicians from J-1 visa changes, CAP says

Medical coalition seeks J-1 visa protections for physicians

Medical groups to Congress: Protect H-1B physicians

Navigating Visa Challenges Webinar

Navigating the Visa Process as a Pathology Resident

Win at the AMA: Pathology seeks to end health plan 'steering' tactics

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Brittani Riddle
The CAP scores major wins with the AMA at its annual meeting, plus how to navigate work visas, coming up next on the Path News Network. Welcome to the Path News Network Daily Edition, powered by the College of American Pathologists. Today is Tuesday, November 25th. I'm Brittani Riddle. Here's the latest news. The CAP won multiple victories at this year's American Medical Association's House of Delegates interim meeting. The AMA adopted two CAP-introduced resolutions. The first will stop health plan in-network steering of pathology and laboratory services. The second will prohibit deceptive advertising by educational programs to train healthcare professionals and other non-physicians. The CAP and the Pathology Section Council advocated for both measures, which are now AMA policies. The CAP's advocacy efforts remain strong in the fight against payment cuts. The CAP is urging Congress to stop Medicare's proposed 2.5% efficiency adjustment and additional cuts of up to 15% on tests under the Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule. CAP members can support this work by encouraging their federal lawmakers to back the Results Act, legislation that would block these cuts and establish a new approach for determining clinical lab fees. Use our Action Center to send a message and urge Congress to permanently fix these Medicare cuts. Do you have questions about the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Final Rule? CAP experts have answers. Learn how the rule will affect you and your labs at our upcoming webinar on December 5th at 3 p.m. ET. You can register using the link in the show notes. Finally, navigating visas can often be a challenge for medical residents and fellows. Joining me today to discuss what students should know is Dr. Neha Varshney, gastrointestinal pathologist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Varshney, thank you so much for joining me today. So can you elaborate on the different visa options that are available to medical students and fellows?
Dr. Neha Varshney
Yeah, so there are a lot of them. So it depends. They're different. Let me start from the beginning. There are different types of visas, H-1 and J-1. And then there is also an O-1 visa where people can do, where residents can do the residency or fellowships. Most common one being J-1 visa because that's easier, I think. So most of the people have the J-1 visa program. H-1 program does not need any kind of waiver. So you can directly go from one H-1 to another H-1. So some universities don't offer that, but whoever supports that, you can just directly go to H-1. So that's usually not an issue. And then you have a J-1 visa, which basically means that you have to either do a waiver job, which specifically means like for three years, either you have to work in an underserved area. Or you have to go back to your country for two years and work there and then you can come back on an H-1. So that's a different kind of takeout. So it's a little different. It gets a little complicated. And then so in order to do the waivers, you have different kind of waiver programs. So the most common and most rampant one is Conrad 30, which is given from like every state does that. It has 30 positions. It's different for every state. So. You have to see what are the criteria. Like some places are lottery system. Some places only give first to primary care and then give it to subspecialist. Pathologists are considered under the subspeciality category, the pathology. But so that becomes a little challenging in some of the states. Some of the states don't differentiate. It's first come first serve basis. So you kind of have to navigate that when you are applying. So you need to know what the criteria is in that state you are looking into. So it can get a little tricky. Then you have the other thing, which it is, so it has a limit of 30 days. Excuse me, not 30 days, 30 spots. And 30 spots, and then it has a time limit. So every state has a time, like some have like 1st of September, some have 1st of October, things like that. So that gets very tricky because you're just starting a fellowship. and if the timeline is so early, can get difficult.
Brittani Riddle
There are a lot of different options. As you mentioned, there's H-1B, there's J-1. Where does one even begin to navigate the different options that are available?
Dr. Neha Varshney
So when you apply as a medical student, right, so you apply to different universities, depends on the university, what they offer. Also for H-1, you have to have your step three results by that time. So that's the only way you will get H1. So your step three is done. And if they offer you can get H-1. If not, then you automatically go on J1.
Brittani Riddle
So how does the visa program address workforce challenges in the US, particularly in rural and underserved communities?
Dr. Neha Varshney
So right now there is a huge shortage of pathologists already and in next 10 to 15 years it's going to get massive. So if we are not, if you're letting people go back to their countries, like you know they're trained here, they have got the good education here and they're smart people, you're letting them go back then and with the shortage is going to get even more challenging and especially in the rural area. So I worked in Mississippi. Majority of the people working at university were on J-1. Some of the really underserved areas, it's really hard to hire. And this would be a very, like, it's a very good way to hire that workforce who need the visa waiver. And so it's win-win for both for the parties in a way.
Brittani Riddle
Can you talk about the CAP's advocacy efforts around visas?
Dr. Neha Varshney
A big portion, a big chunk is... from pathologists who need waivers. So we are trying to work, CAP is actively trying to work on it. There are a lot of, you know, the incoming president itself, he was on J-1, Dr. Zhai. So we are all trying to work on that so that we can help them. I don't know how much legally we can do, but at least we are trying to make sure that we give them enough, you know, information and awareness so that they can figure that out and help them navigate it. So we are working on different panels. We have done several webinars on it. I wrote a blog a couple years ago, I think, on that as well. So we are trying to do as much as possible. And we are trying to help the residents. So we work with RFEC. So I'm on the new in practice committee. So new in practice, we also, you know, have fellows in our thing so it's very it's something which is very um kind of a crossover between RFEC and New in Practice Committee. So we are trying to work with RFEC as well and doing all these things and helping them out basically. So CAP is very active and trying to and very, very supportive.
Brittani Riddle
Awesome. And we'll be sure to include all of the resources in today's show notes. That's all for today on the Path News Network Daily Edition. Thank you again to my guest, Dr. Varshney for joining me. Find more about all of today's stories in the show notes and our member newsletters. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern Time. Have a great day.

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