Four
Weeks Remain To Pass Medicare Reform Bill: Contact Your Senators
To Take Action As Congress prepares to leave for Memorial Day recess,
16 members of ACC leadership met in Washington, D.C. to discuss
a Medicare reform package with House, Senate and committee
leadership. When Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess,
there will be just four weeks to pass the bill. The White
House has given lawmakers until June 16 to pass legislation
to prevent administrative and payment difficulties for the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Members are urged
to contact their senators and ask them to support 18 months
of positive Medicare physician payments, and ask them not
to use cuts to medical imaging payments to offset new costs.
To support the efforts of your colleagues in preventing physician
payment cuts, contact your senators with the ACC's toll-free
Grassroots Hotline at (800) 210-7193.
REGULATORY
AND PAYER
CMS
Launches Pilot To Test Bundled Payments The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
on May 16 announced the launch of a new demonstration project
designed to test the use of a bundled payment for both hospital
and physician services for certain episodes of care. The goal
of the program is to use a bundled payment – defined
as a single payment for both Part A and Part B Medicare services
furnished during an inpatient stay – to better align
incentives for both hospitals and physicians to improve quality
and increase efficiency of care. The procedures eligible for
the pilot include 28 cardiac inpatient surgical services.
The pilot will offer financial incentives to beneficiaries
who visit participating facilities, which will be designated
as "Value-Based Care Centers," in an effort to determine
the effect of transparent price and quality information on
beneficiary choice. Pilot participants will be chosen from
facilities located in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado.
For more information about the pilot, visit the CMS Web site
here.
The ACC will be following this pilot closely to determine
what lessons can be learned about aligning incentive among
different providers to improve quality. Aligning incentives
to promote quality and efficiency is an important component
of efforts to reform the health care system. For more information
about the ACC's health system reform campaign, visit http://qualityfirst.acc.org.
CMS
To Accept Only NPIs for Medicare Beginning May 23 As of Friday, May 23, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) will automatically reject all Medicare
claims with a legacy provider number in any field, including
the referring and rendering provider sections. Practices are
instructed to use only National Provider Identifiers (NPI)
for identifying providers on claim forms. The NPI will replace
the following the legacy numbers: OSCAR/Certification Number,
Provider Identification Number (PIN), Unique Physician Identification
Number (UPIN) and National Supplier Clearinghouse (NSC) Number.
Since 2006, CMS completed several levels of testing with
the new NPI and legacy numbers. Additionally, Medicare is
working with the nation's medical claim clearinghouses to
ensure a smooth transition on May 23. On May 7, some clearinghouses
agreed to strip off the legacy number on claims prior to submitting
to Medicare so CMS and the providers could determine impact
of NPI only. As a result of this test, Medicare did not report
a significant increase in claim rejects, suspensions or provider
calls. Please let the ACC know if you are experiencing NPI
problems before and after the May 23 deadline by completing
the ACC Payer Hassle Form at http://www.acc.org/advocacy/pmr/payer_interaction/pheform.htm.
Bayer
HealthCare To Remove Remaining Trasylol Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Inc., recently
announced that it will begin to remove any Trasylol remaining
from FDA-requested marketing suspension of the drug in November
2007. FDA issued the marketing suspension after a Canadian
study suggested a higher rate of death for Trasylol than for
other drugs used to control bleeding. Most of the remaining
stock of the drug is in warehouses or hospital and physicians'
stock. FDA also issued a limited use agreement, which will
limit access to the drug to investigational use for treatment
of certain patients who are at increased risk of blood loss
and transfusions during CABG surgery and who have no acceptable
alternative therapy. To use Trasylol in such situations, physicians
must verify that the benefits clearly outweigh any risks for
patients.
FDA
News Update Medtronic on May 7 announced that it is initiating
a voluntary and precautionary recall of certain products containing
its Carmeda BioActive surface, after limited lots manufactured
with heparin were found to be contaminated oversulfated chondroitin
sulfate (OSCS). Although the risk of OSCS in coated devices
is not known, FDA has found serious adverse events for injectable
heparin products containing high levels of OSCS. The recalled
products are disposable products used during cardiopulmonary
bypass for heart surgeries. Separately, Medtronic is also
advising consumers that selected lots of Trillium-coated products
contain heparin with OSCS. However, given the small amount
of heparin present in those products, Medtronic is advising
patients to continue use until a replacement is available.
In related news, Atrium Medical Corporation on May 12 announced
it is initiating a voluntary and precautionary recall of selected
lots of HYDRAGLIDE™ Brand Heparin-Coated Thoracic Drainage
Catheters, after the lots were found to be contaminated with
OSCS. Patients are advised to discontinue use and obtain replacement
catheters from Atrium.
Meanwhile, FDA on May 16 announced it approved Boston Scientific
Corporation's ACUITY® Spiral left ventricular lead for
use with cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators
and cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers. Its small
size supports the placement of the lead in veins of varying
sizes, including difficult-to-access veins. Boston Scientific
will monitor the effects of the lead in a prospective, multi-center
trial to collect and analyze real-world performance data for
a period of five years.
QUALITY
Comment
Period Now Open: Cardiovascular Recognition Program The ACC has opened a 30-day comment period on its
Cardiovascular Recognition Program (CVRP), a practice-level
recognition program designed to identify quality in cardiovascular
practice. The ACC offers the CVRP as a tool for cardiovascular
practitioners and health care purchasers to understand and
evaluate quality cardiovascular care. To ensure that the program
accurately reflects the views of our members, the ACC is soliciting
comments about the draft program. 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.
Google
Launches "Google Health" Personal Health Record Reuters on Monday reported on the launch
of "Google Health," a personal health record (PHR)
developed by Google, Inc. The PHR stores patients' medical
history online, which is password-protected and can only be
viewed with the patient's permission. Google then uses that
history to gather information relevant to the user's health
conditions. The PHR also features a link to locate physicians
by location or specialty, and notifies patients of when to
take medication or of potential drug interactions. In addition,
Google Health includes links to major pharmacies in the U.S.,
physician groups and medical testing laboratories. However,
some experts have expressed privacy concerns over the service,
which is not covered under federal privacy laws. For additional
coverage from Reuters, click here.
For more information on the ACC's health IT efforts, go to:
www.acc.org/healthit.
