Economic Stimulus Bill to Include HIT Investment

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.

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.