ASCP Companion Society Program at 2008 USCAP Annual Meeting

As I was registering for the upcoming 2008 USCAP meeting I came across a listing for a new symposium listed below taken from the ASCP website at the below link for the ASCP 2008 companion meeting Sunday night.  While I laud USCAP and ASCP for their efforts to address these important issues in our specialty and the practice of pathology I find it contemptible that a meeting playing host to one of the largest collections of surgical pathologists amongst our societies and professional organizations and colleges has placed this on the program.

While USCAP and the speakers listed below are respected members of the pathology community, What has our specialty come to that this seminar with the words “sleaze”, “graft” and “corruption” finds itself among sessions listed alongside the ASC, AMP and ISBP addressing equally pertinent, timely issues for practicing pathologists?

It will be interesting to see how many of those that attend a session on Sunday night split up among the offerings.  Given the current state of affairs with groups putting out flyers at the CAP meeting entitled “Pathology in Peril” and the like for their own offerings, pathologists working for clinicians in clinician-owned laboratories and ongoing fair reimbursement and compensation for pathology services, I gather this will be attended by many whose practice these issues impact, which includes most of us.

What interests me most having completed my pathology in this century is how did we lose our place among our clinical colleagues, pathology colleagues, patients, clients, hospitals, health care organizations, regulatory agencies and insurers that we are now putting on symposiums about “sham practice”, “kickbacks”, “sleaze”, “corruption” and “graft” and “surgical pathologist” in the same sentences at one of our premier specialty meetings….

American Society for Clinical Pathology (USCAP 2008, Denver, CO)
Sunday, March 2, 2008
7:30-9:30 pm

Controversies in Pathology Part Deux:  Update on Sleaze, Graft and Corruption and Why a Surgical Pathologist Needs to Care!

Moderator:   Robert E. Petras, MD, AmeriPath Inc., Oakwood Village, OH

7:30   Introduction
Robert E. Petras, MD, AmeriPath Inc., Oakwood Village, OH

8:00   Overview of Irregular Business Practices in Surgical Pathology
Robert L. Michel, The Dark Report, Spicewood, TX

8:30    How to Compete When Everyone Seems to be Cheating
Jane Pine Wood, Esq., McDonald Hopkins Co. LPA, Dennis, MA

9:00   Organized Pathology to the Rescue: the ASCP Approach
John S. J. Brooks, MD, FRCPath, Philadelphia, PA

This new symposium will provide updates on the gray areas of compliance such as: gifting, kickbacks, inducements, discounted client-billing, “condominium” laboratories, sham group practice arrangements and insurance exclusions.  These business approaches erode the practice of surgical pathology and subvert the ethical foundation of our profession.  The faculty will update the membership on these major threats to surgical pathology while offering guidance on how to compete when others seem to be cheating.

Following this program, you will be able to:

• Identify and differentiate various business practices in surgical pathology
• Demonstrate increased awareness of what is considered compliant with the law
• Acquire techniques to compete
• Help pathology organizations combat this threat