Transcription

• Nancy Johnson

  Have you previewed your MIPS info? Meanwhile, a common treatment for multiple myeloma can influence test results and a microbiologist is headed to the house. These stories and more coming up next. This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Nancy Johnson. It's Friday, May 29th. Pathology practices that participate in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, or MIPS, can now preview the information. The preview period is intended to allow practices to verify the accuracy of performance scores and other data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services make information for the 2024 performance year publicly available later this year. If you find errors, you can submit a correction request and to CMS before the preview window closes on June 11th. In more news, Florida Republican Representative Neil Dunn introduced a bill in the House of Representatives last week that would allow laboratories to opt for Food and Drug Administration or third-party reviews for some laboratory-developed tests or LDTs. It would also impose new reporting requirements and regulatory standards for LDTs. A 2025 court decision clarified that LDTs are regulated under CLIA, the federal law that already regulates lab testing. The proposed bill would introduce a framework for doing that with a transition period of two years. The CAP is evaluating the bill known as the Enhancing CLIA Act. The CAP has said that any LDT proposal should strengthen patient protections without creating duplicative or burdensome requirements. An increasingly common treatment for multiple myeloma could lead to false negative interpretations in subsequent lab tests, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, showed that intravenous immunoglobulin therapy can temporarily obscure small monoclonal proteins in electrophoresis tests. Detection of these M proteins helped laboratories distinguish between a completely successful response to treatment and a good but only partial response. The study's authors concluded that labs must be informed of the patient's intravenous immunoglobulin therapy status. when interpreting test results. And finally, Jasmine Clark won the Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives in Georgia's 13th district last month. That's notable because the state representative holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and teaches at Emory University's Woodruff School of Nursing. Clark is widely expected to win election in November in the heavily Democratic district, which will make her you the first African-American woman with a science doctorate to be elected to Congress. There are currently 16 medical doctors and one science PhD in the House, none of whom are pathologists or microbiologists. Clark got involved in public life as organizer of a March for Science in Atlanta in 2017, and she has said in interviews that her science background gives her a unique perspective among legislators. One of her colleagues in the Georgia Statehouse even quipped that her legislative approach is putting policy under a microscope. That's all for today. For more information on today's stories, check the show notes. And if you've got a story we should be covering, write to us at stories at CAP.org. We'll be back Monday at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nancy Johnson. Have a great weekend.