Within
the next few weeks, Congress will take up the "American
Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009," which is expected
to authorize $20 billion for health information technology
(IT) to prevent medical errors, provide better care to patients
and introduce cost-saving efficiencies. Specifically, the
health IT portion would establish standards, payment incentives,
and privacy protections, and encourage widespread adoption.
Meanwhile, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee on Thursday held a committee hearing on using the
stimulus package to promote health IT. The ACC issued a statement
before the hearing: “At the ACC, we believe there are
immediate steps the Committee can take to dramatically improve
the quality of care in this country and drive down the long-term
cost of care. Using stimulus dollars to mandate the implementation
of electronic prescriptions and electronic medical records,
along with establishing standards to ensure interoperability
across IT systems are just some of them."
ACC
Comments on SCHIP Reauthorization
The
ACC on Jan. 15 sent letters to Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-Nev.) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
urging the passage of the Chairman’s mark for the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) Reauthorization
Act of 2009. The ACC supports the reauthorization of SCHIP.
However, while the ACC supports funding the program through
an increase in the federal tobacco tax, the College disagrees
with the funding mechanism provision included in the House
version that would prospectively ban physician self-referral
to hospitals in which they have an ownership interest. The
letters state, “ACC is deeply concerned about the impact
that this potential move on specialty hospitals could have
on patients and respectfully requests that ... Congress continues
to search for alternative funding mechanisms to appropriately
fund the SCHIP program.” View the letter to Sen. Reid
here.
REGULATORY
HHS
Sets 2013 as ICD-10 Compliance Date The
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Jan. 15 released
the final rule for the transition to the International Classification
of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). The rule sets a compliance
date of Oct. 1, 2013, to ICD-10, which includes more than
155,000 codes to accommodate a host of new diagnoses and procedures.
The proposed rule had suggested a compliance date of Oct.
1, 2011. In its comment
letter, the ACC strongly suggested to HHS that a later
compliance period was necessary because a 2011 compliance
date would lead to significant short-term difficulty for the
health care community and reduce the long term benefits. The
two-year delay of the transition in the final rule is a response
to these concerns and the concerns of other groups that also
supported a longer transition period. More information is
available online.
New
PQRI Tools from ACC
The
ACC has posted new tools in its Issue
Resource Center on Medicare Payment Reform. Now available
on this page is information on claims-based participation
in the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative, including
frequently-asked questions and a cardiology worksheet, as
well as information on the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services e-prescribing incentive program. Visit
the Medicare payment resource center to learn more!
Majority
of Hospitals Receive Full Payment for New CMS Quality Program
The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will award
the full payment update for the Hospital Outpatient Quality
Data Reporting Program (HOP QDRP) to more than 3,000 U.S.
hospitals in 2009. Under this program, hospitals reported
data for 2008 services on seven quality measures for myocardial
infarction and surgical care to receive the full annual update
to their Outpatient Prospective Payment System payment rate,
effective for payments beginning in 2009. Of the 3,339 participating
hospitals in 2008, 3,313, or 99.3 percent, will receive the
full update. More
information is available from Cardiovascular Business
magazine.
