Final
Weeks to Take Advantage of the August Congressional Recess
With Medicare payment legislation pending on Capitol Hill,
it is now more imperative than ever that Congress hear firsthand
from the cardiovascular community. With the House and Senate
both in recess through Labor Day, there are several opportunities
to help advocate — in your district — for fair
reimbursement and health policy changes to ensure that cardiovascular
specialists can continue to practice medicine in a manner
that delivers the highest quality for patients.
Schedule a visit with your lawmakers in their district
office.
Write/call your member of Congress using the sample letters
provided at www.acc.org/can.
Attend town hall meetings, issue forums, candidate meet-and-greets
and fundraisers. Contact ACC at grassroots@acc.org
or call (800) 253-4636, ext. 6470.
Last
Chance to Register for the ACC’s 2007 Legislative Conference
Registration for the ACC’s 2007 Legislative Conference
in Washington, D.C., closes Aug. 17. This year’s conference
will take place Sept. 16 – 18 at the Fairmont Hotel.
The event will kick off on Sunday night with keynote speaker
Chuck Todd, NBC’s Political Director. Monday will feature
informational sessions on the key issues facing cardiovascular
specialists and a reception to benefit the ACC PAC. Tuesday,
participants will have the opportunity to take the cardiovascular
message directly to lawmakers. Given the Medicare legislation
pending before Congress and national health system reform
discussions taking place, there is no better time to make
sure the cardiovascular voice is heard on Capitol Hill. For
more information, click
here.
regulatory
FDA
Issues Safety Update on Prilosec, Nexium The FDA issued an early communication about the ongoing
review of new safety data for the proton pump inhibitors,
Prilosec and Nexium. The new safety data were from two small
long-term clinical studies in patients with severe GERD. In
both studies, patients were randomly assigned to receive treatment
with a drug (either omeprazole or esomeprazole) or to have
surgery to control their gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).The
results from the study of Prilosec and analyses from an ongoing
study of Nexium raised concerns that long-term use of Prilosec
or Nexium may have increased the risk of heart attacks, heart
failure and heart-related sudden death in those patients taking
either one of the drugs compared to patients who received
surgery. After reviewing these and other data submitted by
the company, the FDA's preliminary conclusion at this time,
is that, collectively, these data do not suggest an increased
risk of heart problems for patients treated with omeprazole
or esomeprazole. Health care providers should not change their
prescribing practices and patients should not change their
use of these products at this time. For more information,
go to: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2007/safety07.htm#Omeprazole
Participation
in ACC, AMA Practice Information Survey Critical The ACC and more than 70 other medical specialty
societies are working together to coordinate a comprehensive
multi-specialty survey of America’s cardiovascular and
other health care practices during 2007. The purpose of the
survey is to collect up-to-date information on practice characteristics
in order to positively influence national decision makers
while further developing cardiovascular policy. Thousands
of practices will be surveyed from virtually all disciplines
to ensure accurate and fair representation for all health
care professionals and their patients. The Gallup Organization
has been retained to administer the PI survey among a representative
sample of practices in each of the participating specialties.
The Practice Information survey is an important and necessary
vehicle for positive change, and to date very few cardiovascular
specialists have taken part in the survey. Please watch for
this survey in the coming weeks and do your part in completing
it in a thorough and accurate manner if randomly selected
to represent our specialty. For more information, go to: http://www.acc.org/advocacy/advoc_issues/acc_ama_survey.htm.
payer
CMS
Further Delays Dissemination of NPI Data The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS) has again delayed the dissemination of Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) disclosable NPI health care provider data until
Sept. 4. The delay allows health care providers additional
time, beyond what was afforded in the Data Dissemination Notice,
in which to view their FOIA-disclosable NPPES data and make
any updates or deletions (where permitted). During this delay,
ACC urges all cardiovascular specialists to review their NPI
file data for accuracy and remove optional information they
do not wish to release. CV specialists who would like to review
and remove their optional data should do so either online
by going to https://NPPES.cms.hhs.gov
or by calling the NPI enumerator, NPPES, at (800) 465-3203,
for a change of information form. For the latest information
on Data Dissemination, as well as a list of the FOIA-disclosable
data elements, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/06a_DataDissemination.asp
on the NPI Web site.
