Society News

Balance Billing and Preferred Provider Organizations

Prior to 2016, the laws that regulated balance billing with regard to enrollees of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) did not apply to preferred provider organizations (PPOs). The basic rule in section 641.3154, Florida Statutes - If an HMO is liable for services rendered to a subscriber by a provider, regardless of whether a contract exists between the organization and the provider, the organization is liable for payment of fees to the provider and the subscriber is not liable for payment of fees to the provider – applied only in the HMO context. Physicians who did not participate in their patient’s PPO were free to balance bill the patient when the insurance company did not pay the physician’s full charge.

FSP Endorses Rebecca L. Johnson, MD and Ronald Giffler, MD in upcoming election at FMA

FSP is proud to announce that it will endorse Rebecca L. Johnson, MD as candidate for delegate for AMA House of Delegates and Ronald F. Giffler, MD as candidate for delegate for FMA Vice President.

Florida Pathologists Engage on Critical Issues with Congress at CAP Policy Meeting

On May 2-4, 2016, we saw first-hand that the College of American Pathologists (CAP)’s Policy Meeting (2016 CAP Policy Meeting - College of American Pathologists) is a must-attend event for pathologists. Seven Florida pathologists who are members of the CAP House of Delegates and the Florida Society of Pathologists attended this meeting. These included Drs. Marilyn Bui, Prudence Smith, Anne Champeaux, Jim Zhai, Jeffrey Smith, Oleksandr Kryvenko, and Peter Johnson. The meeting provided our Florida delegation with a unique opportunity to advocate for pathology and laboratory medicine, while also briefing us on key regulatory issues impacting the specialty and how to best advocate for legislative solutions to the problems that we all face.

FSP 2016 Annual Anatomic Pathology Conference Highlights

The attendees of the 2016 Annual Meeting were delighted with the high caliber of the faculty, the ability to network and socialize with their peers, to view the cutting-edge poster displays and to have the ability to gain from the tremendous knowledge on the latest information and services provided in the Vendor Hall!