As we enter the last quarter of the year, we are in full swing with preparations for the Annual Conference, Committees and Task Forces are working on finishing their 2022 charges, and the board is preparing for their last in-person meeting in November. Additionally, the Call for Volunteers applications are under review and new volunteers will begin on-boarding soon. It’s a time of fast-paced changes mixed with reflection and an acceleration as we reach the end of one year and the beginning of the next. 

In my role as President, I have seen at a high level nearly all the aspects of the organization. We are busting at the seams with exponential growth and expansion, which has occurred over the last 5 years. We are at an inflection point where sustainability must also come into focus. Several initiatives supporting the Strategic Plan Pillar Growth & Sustainability are highlighted below; 

Making a Business Case for GC Services: To enable genetic counselors to advocate for implementation of professional billing and hiring or maintaining genetic counselors, the Access and Service Delivery (ASD) Committee created a Business Case Toolkit. This was the result of NSGC’s first business case  summit which laid the foundation for the development of the toolkit. A white paper resulted from this initial meeting that described genetic counselors’ experience with business cases, and how to prepare for making one. The Business Case Toolkit will go live SOON. Stay tuned for access and in preparation, check out the compendium of the financial benefits of utilizing genetic counselors.  

Evaluation of CPT code 96040 - At the beginning of the year, NSGC led an effort, in collaboration with ACMG, to refine a strategy for revising CPT® code 96040 which is a professional billing code for medical genetics and genetic counseling services.  Our hope is that by revising the code, we can better document the full range of our genetic counseling services and create a more sustainable billing and reimbursement strategy for the work we do. In September, Brian Reys (Vice Chair of ASD), Rachel Bluebond (Member, NSGC ASD Committee), Dr. David Flannery (ACMG representative) and myself presented our proposed revisions to the AMA CPT® committee in Seattle. Our request was discussed in a confidential meeting of CPT® advisors (the Review Panel). The decision following the presentation and subsequent discussion was to table the request and review at a future date. This ASD working group is now using the Review Panel recommendations to consider the next steps and prepare for a potential re-submission in the future. 

End of the Year Push for the Advocacy Coordinating Committee (ACC) - Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our efforts to date, especially our ACC Chairs Colleen Campbell and Antonina Ryvlin. We are now making  one final push as we enter the midterms. Our advocacy team (ACC, Government Relations staff, outside lobbying firm and NSGC members) have met with over 100 offices of members of Congress throughout the past year and continue to do so. To date, we have secured 64 cosponsors in the House and 5 in the Senate. A total of 41% of our cosponsors sit on Committees of jurisdiction. This is outstanding progress and we want to keep this momentum going all the way until the end of the year. If you have not yet signed up for the final push to get more members of Congress to express support for our bill, we encourage you to do so by taking a few moments to sign-up. 

Professional Issues Panel - Despite exponential growth in our field, disparities continue to exist in access to our services, referrals to genetic counselors, and outcomes of genetics services. This year's Professional Issues Panel will bring a focus on health inequities that exist in the genetic counseling field and discuss actionable strategies that address systems and upstream factors impacting health equity in genetic counseling. Please join us on the evening of Friday, November 18th to be in conversation with our three panelists  Grace-Ann Fasaye, ScM, CGC, Crystal Y. Lumpkins, PhD, MA, and Mya L. Roberson, PhD, to increase recruitment of a more diverse workforce, improve access to services, and create more inclusive technologies, research, and practice.

To learn more about the work of Committees and Task Forces from the past year look for an On-Demand recording when the AC virtual platforms opens. Board members will be hanging out at the NSGC booth  in Nashville during exhibit hours - come talk or learn the achy breaky line dance with board members.

Here we come again!
 

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