Washington, DC – On the eve of the White House health care summit, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) offered some bipartisan, common sense solutions to members of both parties attending tomorrow’s meeting.

The ACC, a professional medical society that uses real patient data to track clinical outcomes of health care delivery, offered a renewed focus on the President’s call to incentivize quality care, something members of both parties have repeatedly suggested. As a consequence to improving quality, the ACC believes the cost of delivering health care can be substantially reduced. 

“We’ve heard members of both parties mention quality health care as part of their talking points,” said ACC President Alfred A. Bove, M.D. “But this summit is a chance to actually talk about how to improve it and as a consequence, bend the cost curve downward.” 

The ACC believes that health care reform is critically needed to increase patient access, improve quality outcomes, reduce unnecessary spending, and make system-wide improvements in the delivery of care for patients. In addition to national data registries, the ACC has also established guidelines and appropriate use criteria that ensure the most effective treatments for patients. 

The ACC strongly supports initiatives that seek to expand coverage to the almost 50 million uninsured and underinsured in our country, and appreciates efforts to reform the insurance market and promote the availability of more coverage options.

The College supports efforts to promote wellness and prevention. Prevention is a key component to keeping health care costs down and also significantly improves health outcomes.

The College believes health reform must include permanent reform of the flawed Medicare physician payment formula to provide stable, positive updates that account for increases in the cost of providing care. 

The College strongly supports efforts to improve the quality of care, and believes the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) needs more resources to bolster its quality efforts and test new models of delivering and paying for care. The ACC encourages the Administration and Congress to look at efforts taken by the ACC in this area, such as the development of appropriate use criteria for medical imaging and the PINNACLE Network™, the first-ever, registry-based cardiovascular network designed to provide practices with the tools they need to promote practice innovations and achieve clinical excellence. 

The College believes reform must include meaningful medical liability reform so that physicians can practice medicine based on what’s best for the patients rather than out of fear of litigation. 

With 43 percent of Medicare dollars being spent to combat heart disease, our nation’s number one killer, Congress and the Administration could certainly 

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About the ACC:
The American College of Cardiology is leading the way to optimal cardiovascular care and disease prevention. The College is a 37,000-member nonprofit medical society and bestows the credential Fellow of the American College of Cardiology upon physicians who meet its stringent qualifications. The College is a leader in the formulation of health policy, standards and guidelines, and is a staunch supporter of cardiovascular research. The ACC provides professional education and operates national registries for the measurement and improvement of quality care. More information about the association is available online at www.acc.org .