Medicare Package Discussions Continue in Senate as July 1 Approaches With only three weeks remaining to stop the 10.6 percent Medicare physician payment cut, staff for Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) met with several physician groups, including the ACC, on Monday to review physician-related elements of the Medicare legislation to be brought to the Senate floor next week. Baucus’ bill includes many positive elements for the cardiovascular community, including an 18 month Medicare payment update at .5 percent, an extension of the PQRI through 2011 and positive incentives for e-prescribing through 2013. On the imaging front, the bill does not include payment cuts to imaging services. It includes an accreditation requirement for advance modalities and would fund a two-year voluntary appropriateness criteria demonstration project supported by the ACC.
Meanwhile, Senate Finance Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is also working on alternative Medicare legislation. The ACC continues to support both Baucus and Grassley in their efforts to stabilize physician payment for 18 months, while also helping ensure quality care for patients. To complicate matters, President Bush last week threatened to veto any Medicare legislation that cuts payments to private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to offset the bill's cost and HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has suggested that lawmakers find offsets by making cuts to other providers within traditional Medicare. Senate phone calls are critical at this time. All members are strongly encouraged to contact their senators and urge them to support an 18-month positive update in physician payments, while opposing any cuts to physician services such as medical imaging. Simply call the ACC's toll-free Grassroots Hotline at (800) 210-7193 to be connected directly with your Senate office.
Senate Finance Committee Holds 2nd Health Reform Hearing The Senate Finance Committee this week hosted the second in a series of hearings on health system reform. This latest hearing, which focused on “Rising Costs, Low Quality in Health Care: The Necessity for Reform,” included testimony from Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, Elizabeth McGlynn, associate director at RAND Health, Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of AFL-CIO, and Felicia Fields, group vice president of Human Resources and Corporate Services at the Ford Motor Company.
The ACC issued a press statement thanking the Senate Finance Committee for tackling this important topic and highlighting the ACC’s efforts to improve the quality of health care. “Patients and physicians alike are frustrated with the current health care system and its misaligned incentives, lack of coordinated care, inconsistent quality and growing unaffordability,” said ACC CEO Jack Lewin, M.D. “Medical costs are rising at an incredible rate, yet Americans are still unable to get the quality health care they deserve. Under our current system, lousy doctors are rewarded, while honest doctors who practice quality, evidence-based care are penalized.” To read the complete statement, visit http://qualityfirst.acc.org.
Majority of Physicians Support Greater Political Involvement, Survey Finds Nearly 65 percent of physicians believe that physicians need to be more active in politics to improve the U.S. health care system, according to a survey of 760 physicians appearing in the May/June issue of The Physicians Executive Journal of Medical Management and conducted by the American College of Physician Executives. Nearly one-quarter of those surveyed said that physicians need to form stronger lobbying groups to improve the nation's health care system. Only 0.5 percent of those surveyed believed physicians should not become involved in politics.
The ACC strongly supports physician involvement in advocacy efforts, and offers resources to chapters to increase participation. For examples of the advocacy resources available, visit the Chapter Affairs Extranet at http://members.acc.org/caextranet/Advocacy/. In addition, the ACC’s annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., is a great opportunity to learn more about the critical issues facing the cardiovascular community and to meet face-to-face with lawmakers. Registration for the 2008 conference, which will take place Sept. 14-16, will open this month. Several travel awards for FITs and CCAs are still available. Simply email your name, address and a short statement on why you would like to attend to sbailes@acc.org.
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All-Member Comment Period Open for Cardiovascular Recognition Program The ACC is still accepting comments on its Cardiovascular Recognition Program (CVRP), a practice-level recognition program designed to identify quality in cardiovascular practice. To ensure that the program accurately reflects the views of our members, the ACC is soliciting comments about the draft program through June 15 from all ACC members. To view the draft and submit comments, click here. For an overview of the program, as featured in a CVN interview with ACC CEO Jack Lewin and ACC Vice President of Science and Quality Janet Wright, click here. For slides from the ACC's May 14 Webinar on the CVRP, click here.
Aetna Releases Guiding Principles to Improve Interactions With Physicians Aetna last week unveiled a series of guiding principles aimed at identifying specific behaviors and business actions that the health care company said will make it easier for physicians to do business with the company. The guidelines will allow physicians to terminate from its network 90 days after notice is received, with no need to show cause. In addition, Aetna will continue to allow submission of claims up to 120 days following provision of service. The release of the guiding principles comes as the 2003 Physicians Settlement Agreement between Aetna and providers is set to expire on June 2.
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Registration for First CBCCT Exam Still Open The Certification Board of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CBCCT) has set July 25 as the close of late registration for the first examination for certification in CCT. Qualifying ACC members are encouraged to apply for the exam, at a cost of $1,095.00, before this deadline. The exam, which will be held on Sept. 22, is offered in Prometric testing centers across the country and will consist of up to 200 multiple-choice questions, lasting 4.5 hours. Each question will include four choices, only one of which is the correct or best answer, and some questions involve the interpretation of images and figures. The questions are based on a fall 2007 analysis of the practice of CCT, which was intended to define the responsibilities, tasks and knowledge necessary for physicians to practice in the CCT field. A tutorial that includes sample questions is available online here. The Candidate Bulletins and application forms are available at the CBCCT Web site here.
