Fall 2016 - Pg 1 Grassroots explosion of VOICE, VALUE, VISION Official publication of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science ~ South Dakota TOPIC QUICK LINKS: President’s Message - 1 ASCLS-SD Leadership Contact Information - 2 ASCLS-SD at the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia -2 ASCLS-SD & ASCLS Premier Websites - 3 24/7 Buffet - 3 Government Affairs Update - 4 Calendar of Events – 5 Region V Director Update - 6 2017 Legislative Symposium Opportunity - 6 side bar President's Message: Fall Brings Change and Opportunities Jeff Kistler, ASCLS-SD President 2016-2017 With the change of seasons in full fall swing I welcome you to a new year as your South Dakota ASCLS State President. The National meeting in Philadelphia was well represented by South Dakota! This year the delegates were able to electronically vote at the ASCLS National meeting. I am hoping to bringing electronic voting to state meeting! I am pleased to announce that our ASCLS-SD Volusion placed 3 rd nationally. Great job to all that contributed and also to Pat Tille and Stacie Lansink for spending the extra time putting the newsletter together. I want to personally congratulate Lori Meyer for receiving Member of the Year. The State Omicron Sigma Award recipients: Kay Rasmussen, Tammy Svatos, Tiffany Montalvo, Brett Sherrill, Brendon Sato, Pam Kieffer, Wes Bonham, and Amanda Horn. The Region V Omicron Sigma Award recipients: Stacie Lansink and Jeff Kistler and the National Omicron Sigma recipients: Pat Tille and Shirley Heber. As the days continue to fly by please mark your calendars for the Fall one-day Meeting in Huron, SD on Friday November 11 th . Owen Bain has done a fantastic job planning our Fall Event this year as we transition into a two-day spring meeting in April. Mark your calendars to “SAVE THE DATE” as we will have our spring meeting in Mitchell, April 6 th & 7 th . The Fall Meeting is on the website and has also been sent out to the members, please register early as we look forward to seeing you there. I would like to take a moment to say thank you to all of you that signed the petition to keep nurses out of the laboratory. We must move forward with one voice to keep our momentum going. Laboratory professional need to be proactive in keeping the laboratory staffed with “Laboratory Professionals”! Please reach out to the Board Members if you would like to become involved or if you have any questions. It is a pleasure to serve you this year! I am looking forward to working with you, and am always open to suggestion. I can be reached at [email protected]or 605-231-0275. We are always looking for volunteers to help serve on committees. Please let any one of the Board Members know if you are interested in serving on a committee. -return to page 1- VOLUSION….ASCLS-SD is published quarterly and is made available to all ASCLS SD members in electronic format. The current issue and past issues will also be available for on-line viewing on the Society’s web page: www.ascls-sd.org The co-editors reserve the right to edit content and length of material to meet publication specifications. All ASCLS SD members are invited to submit articles of interest to the co- editors for publication in future issues.
Transcript
Fall 2016 - Pg 1
Grassroots explosion of VOICE, VALUE, VISION Official publication of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science ~ South Dakota
TOPIC QUICK L INKS :
President’s Message - 1 ASCLS-SD Leadership Contact Information - 2 ASCLS-SD at the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia -2 ASCLS-SD & ASCLS Premier Websites - 3 24/7 Buffet - 3 Government Affairs Update - 4 Calendar of Events – 5 Region V Director Update - 6 2017 Legislative Symposium Opportunity - 6 side bar
President's Message: Fall Brings Change and Opportunities Jeff Kistler, ASCLS-SD President 2016-2017
With the change of seasons in full fall swing I welcome you to a new year as your South Dakota ASCLS State President. The National meeting in Philadelphia was well represented by South Dakota! This year the delegates were able to electronically vote at the ASCLS National meeting. I am hoping to bringing electronic voting to state meeting! I am pleased to announce that our ASCLS-SD Volusion placed 3rd nationally. Great job to all that contributed and also to Pat Tille and Stacie Lansink for spending the extra time putting the newsletter together. I want to personally congratulate Lori Meyer for receiving Member of the Year.
The State Omicron Sigma Award recipients: Kay Rasmussen, Tammy Svatos, Tiffany Montalvo, Brett Sherrill, Brendon Sato, Pam Kieffer, Wes Bonham, and Amanda Horn. The Region V Omicron Sigma Award recipients: Stacie Lansink and Jeff Kistler and the National Omicron Sigma recipients: Pat Tille and Shirley Heber.
As the days continue to fly by please mark your calendars for the Fall one-day Meeting in Huron, SD on Friday November 11th. Owen Bain has done a fantastic job planning our Fall Event this year as we transition into a two-day spring meeting in April. Mark your calendars to “SAVE THE DATE” as we will have our spring meeting in Mitchell, April 6th & 7th. The Fall Meeting is on the website and has also been sent out to the members, please register early as we look forward to seeing you there.
I would like to take a moment to say thank you to all of you that signed the petition to keep nurses out of the laboratory. We must move forward with one voice to keep our momentum going. Laboratory professional need to be proactive in keeping the laboratory staffed with “Laboratory Professionals”!
Please reach out to the Board Members if you would like to become involved or if you have any questions. It is a pleasure to serve you this year! I am looking forward to working with you, and am always open to suggestion. I can be reached at [email protected] or 605-231-0275.
We are always looking for volunteers to help serve on committees. Please let any one of the Board Members know if you are interested in serving on a committee.
-return to page 1-
VOLUSION….ASCLS-SD is published quarterly and is made available to all ASCLS SD members in electronic format. The current issue and past issues will also be available for on-line viewing on the Society’s web page: www.ascls-sd.org The co-editors reserve the right to edit content and length of material to meet publication specifications.
All ASCLS SD members are invited to submit articles of interest to the co-editors for publication in future issues.
The 24/7 Buffet Robert Jensen, MT(ASCP); ASCLS-SD Scientific Assembly for Administration Chair
Well I am not talking about a weekend trip to Vegas! The administration of a clinical laboratory is as varied as a 24-hour buffet and no two jobs are the same. From the Critical Access Hospital working administrators, to Technical Supervisors, true administrators (no bench work) to those of us in the middle as administrators, technical supervisors and working staff (the Jack of all trades and master of none). As supervisors we get to juggling 3 -4 different generations of staff, understanding their needs and how to get them to work together with each other as well as other departments of the hospital/clinic is a never ending experiment. Annual CPT code changes, new test builds, validation studies, inspections, complaints, kudos, sales reps, physician requests-you learn to take a little of each and not over do the things on your plate! Once the plate is full you take care of it one bite at a time.
But to staff a laboratory, get the right lab test drawn at the right time and results to a
physician to make medical decisions that will result in positive outcome makes it all
fulfilling. So I have cleaned my plate and ready for the next buffet! So many choices it never
gets boring.
The Annual Region V Symposium is on The Move!
ASCLS Region V recently had their meeting in Fargo, ND. A two-day event of networking and continuing education that will be coming to Sioux Falls, SD October 6-7th in 2017.
-return to page 1-
Region V Networking at its finest. From left: Pat Tille (Region V Director),
Alice Hawley (Chair of Region V meeting), Kelly Weber, Jenna Pruitt, Karen
Larson, Cindy Koffman, Charlotte Romaine, Sue Iddings, and Janice Conway-
Be An ASCLS Star! Every clinical laboratorian deserves the professional benefits of ASCLS! Award winning
publications Members-only
discounts for continuing education, resources, references and tools
Professional & Regulatory Advocacy
Grassroots benefits at the local, state, and regional levels
An instant professional family of thousands
Cutting edge resources and updates
Leadership development
Discounted services - credit cards, hotels, insurance programs and more
Share ASCLS's VOICE, VALUE & VISION with your professional friends and colleagues! We all benefit when ASCLS grows! The more members we have in South Dakota, the
Government Affairs Update
Pam Kieffer, ASCLS-SD Board Member at Large & GAC/PAC Chair, 2016-2017
On September 27, BOC, ASCLS, and ASCP met with CMS on Nursing Degree Equivalency Rule. The groups representatives presented CMS with a petition, signed by more than 35,000 individuals opposed to CMS's degree equivalency policy. The petition drive was a community-wide effort led by ASCP and ASCLS to raise concern about CMS's policy that the nursing degree is equivalent to a biological sciences degree for purposes of doing non-waived laboratory testing under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) of 1988. During the meeting, agency officials stated that the memorandum reflected a long standing "internal policy" that had been developed to address concerns about a shortage of testing personnel at physician office laboratories in rural areas. These testing sites are not often staffed by qualified laboratory professionals, such as those individuals who may be certified by the BOC. In response, representatives from ASCP, ASCLS, and the BOC raised concerns about negative impacts on patient care and the need to ensure the accuracy and reliability of all laboratory test results. Laboratory representatives provided CMS with side-by-side comparisons of typical nursing degree programs and laboratory science programs, noting that nursing degrees fall far short of the scientific coursework required to earn a degree in the biological sciences. In its June 22 letter to CMS, the BOC Board of
-return to page 1-
Congratulations to Emma Miller. Emma graduated from the Region V
Leadership Academy and received her certificate at the Region V meeting
in Fargo, ND. From left: Pat Tille (Region V Director), Emma Miller
(ASCLS-SD Region V Leadership Academy Graduate), and Alice Hawley.
(Chair of the Region V meeting)
Fall 2016 - Pg 5
stronger our professional voice is here at home. Recruitment tips & tools can be found at: http://www.ascls.org http://www.ascls-sd.org/
Join Online at: http://www.ascls.org/membershi
p/join
....
ASCLS CLEC
Meeting Feb 23-25, 2017
Boston, MA http://www.ascls.org/education-
meetings
ASCLS
Legislative
Symposium March 20-21, 2017
Washington DC
http://www.ascls.org/education-meetings
ASCLS-SD
Symposium &
Annual Meeting April 6-7, 2017
Mitchell, SD
Governors articulated concerns that nursing degrees provide only a fraction of the scientific coursework required for a biological sciences degree and that what scientific coursework nursing programs do require does not approach the level of achievement involved in obtaining a biological sciences degree. The Agency indicated that it understood and appreciated our concerns. Agency representatives also indicated that CMS will be working to address this issue, and that it is currently examining how best to implement a change in policy. CMS noted that fixing this issue may require the Agency to propose new regulations and that if such a change is required it will soon begin working on draft regulations. From the ASCP Washington Office, ASCP sent out a thank you to all who signed the petition urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to rescind its policy that a bachelor's degree in nursing is equivalent to a bachelor's degree in biological sciences for purposes of performing laboratory testing. On Sept. 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released (and subsequently updated on Sept. 14) a user guide intended to assist the laboratory community in complying with data submission requirements included in the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA) revaluation of the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule (CLFS) Final Rule. Relatedly, on Oct. 3, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released two PAMA-mandated reports detailing findings on CMS's implementation of the new payment system and its impact on Medicare payments for lab tests. OIG notes concern over two aspects of the new system and its implementation: (1) although CMS requires certain labs to report data, it does not plan to verify whether they do so; and (2) CMS does not plan to independently verify the completeness or accuracy of the data that is reported. On Sept. 28, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) that contains long-awaited Zika funding. The legislation, which includes $1.1 billion in funding for the federal Zika response, was signed into law the next day. On Sept. 20, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on the regulation of laboratory developed tests (LDTs). The hearing, which involved testimony from two pathologists, a representative from a diagnostic device manufacturer and a representative from a cancer-focused policy organization organization, provided ample evidence that seeking agreement on the appropriate level of regulation for LDTs is an elusive task. Disagreement exists not only on the appropriate level of oversight but also which federal agency—The Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—should regulate LDTs. The witnesses testifying before the committee agreed that whatever regulatory framework is established must ensure patient access to necessary laboratory testing and that these tests must be safe and effective. That said, concerns continue regarding the scope and cost of regulatory oversight and what impact it might have on patient access to testing.
Washington DC!! Learn more about issues affecting the profession of clinical laboratory science! ASCLS-SD is looking for an interested member to join the South Dakota delegation traveling to Legislative Days in Washington DC – the event will take place March 20-21, 2017. This annual event is held every spring in our nations’ Capitol,
Pat Tille, Region V Director
REGION V and NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S UPDATE! This year was the first year where the Region V Annual Symposium began the move to a different state within the region. The first meeting was held at the Baymont Inn in Fargo North Dakota on October 5th and 6th. The meeting was a great success! There were approximately 30 vendors and over 105 attendees. Members from ALL four states were present along with the ASCLS Executive Vice President Jim Flanigan. Early reviews indicate that the members and vendors alike appreciated the new venue, the great interaction during quality educational sessions and the exhibit time. Additional information and review will be completing in November by the symposium committees. Please join me in CONGRATULATING all involved in the organization, planning and successful completion of a great meeting!! Looking forward to seeing many of YOU at the next Region V Symposium at the Downtown Holiday Inn in Sioux Falls SD on October 6-7th, 2017. Several items of discussion were the topic of the President’s Council meeting in Fargo. The highlights included a review of the budget and new endeavors associated with activities to build collaboration across all four states and the Leadership Academy Blog and Region V website. In reviewing the Region V budget, the budget has been operating at a deficit in compared to income for the past several years. The President’s Council discussed this to some length, and will be making some adjustments to the budget regarding revenues, costs and expenses. The Region V committee appoints were made this year in order to ensure representation for each state at the level of chair in a minimum of one Regional committee. Finally, the leadership academy graduates submitted a proposal to the President’s Council that would allow continuation of the Region V Blog. This proposal was met with very positive comments and support from the Region V Council. Currently the Region V Blog remains active under the Leadership Academy Graduates. A formal policy revision to the Region V SOP will be completed by the President’s Council during the next meeting that will put in place formal control and responsibility of the Blog as well as some support for maintaining the Region V Website. The ASCLS Board of Directors met via conference call on Thursday, November 11th. The BOD discussed numerous items of interest. The United States Presidential Election was at the top of the list. The Board of Directors are working very closely with the ASCLS government affairs groups, other professional health-care organizations and lobbyists to redefine and outline a strategy for ASCLS for 2017. The organization is committed to working with the new Trump administration as new policies and initiatives emerge that will directly impact laboratory science professional practice such as laboratory developed tests and FDA regulation, workforce shortages and of course the changes and/or removal of the Affordable Care Act.
-return to page 1-
Fall 2016 - Pg 7
with intensive two-day sessions designed to inform delegates on hot topics in the laboratory field and equip them to discuss these topics with members of Congress. If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact one of the following members:
Additionally, ASCLS will be issuing a statement in regards to offering events or investments in states or municipalities that have discriminatory laws. It is the unanimous belief by ASCLS that inclusion, diversity and equal rights be clearly supported by the ASCLS Professional organization. Watch for more information regarding this position! Finally, the staff at ASCLS has been working diligently to provide resolutions and improvements in the website information and availability of resources. Please continue to provide feedback, suggestions and concerns as the staff works to improve your membership services. Membership is ahead of schedule in comparison to the previous year and I hope you will all continue to encourage and recruit new members!
THIS IS an EXCITING TIME to be an AMERICAN and a MEMBER of ASCLS!
ASCLS-SD HOSTS ANNUAL 1-DAY FALL SYMPOSIUM in HURON SD, November 11th!
