Medicare Bill Becomes Law
On July 15, Congress overrode President Bush’s veto of H.R. 6331, the "Medicare Patient and Providers Act of 2008." The president has long threatened to veto any legislation that included cuts to Medicare Advantage. As passed, the bill stops the 10.6 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements for 18 months, extends the 0.5 percent payment update for 2008 and provides a 1.1% update for 2009. In addition, the bill continues the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative through 2011. It also includes an accreditation requirement for advanced imaging modalities and funds a two-year voluntary appropriateness criteria demonstration project supported by the ACC.

Health care providers paid under the physician fee schedule should begin to receive payment at the 0.5 percent update rates in approximately 10 business days or less.  Medicare contractors are currently working to update their payment system with the new rates. For more information, contact your local Medicare carrier.

Medicare Bill a HIT for e-Rx
A key component of the newly passed Medicare bill is the first-ever incentive to encourage adoption of e-prescribing technology.  The law will provide positive Medicare payment incentives of up to 2 percent for practitioners who use qualified e-prescribing systems in 2009 through 2013, and a reduction in payments of up to 2 percent to providers who fail to e-prescribe by 2012. The College encourages members to visit www.GetRxConnected.com/ACC, where you’ll find information on how to “get connected” for e-prescribing. Also visit www.acc.org/HealthIT, which offers a wealth of resources, including an EHR toolkit.

House Committee To Vote on EHR Bill
At a conference on privacy on Thursday, House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) said that committee leaders this week hope to vote on a bill (H.R. 6357) that would create a nationwide electronic health record (EHR) system. Rep. Barton also said that the bill will prioritize privacy concerns. Barton said that he is working with committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.), Health Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and subcommittee ranking member Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) to determine how best to word the privacy language. Meanwhile, CongressDaily reported last week that Democratic and Republican Senate aides recently said that a Senate EHR bill could move forward soon. However, several concerns from lawmakers still must be addressed.

New GAO Report Does Disservice to Physicians, Patients
A new report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) ignores physician input and does a disservice to physicians who perform and patients who need medical imaging services.  Under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, the GAO was asked to provide information to Congress to help evaluate the use of medical imaging in Medicare. To do this, the GAO analyzed Medicare claims data from 2000 through 2006, interviewed private health care plans, and reviewed health services literature. However, the agency did not take into account physician input, nor did it use data from 2007 showing a decline in imaging growth. According to the report, spending growth between 2000 and 2006 was linked in large part to the provision of imaging services in physician offices. The GAO recommends the use of prior authorization and “front-end management” of imaging services in order to decrease costs and “add to CMS’s prudent purchaser efforts.”

Drug Industry Releases Revised Marketing Guidelines
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Thursday released a revised voluntary guideline that will ban the distribution of "non-educational" gifts to health care professionals and staff, such as pens, mugs and pads. The guideline, which will take effect in January 2009, also will prohibit pharmaceutical sales representatives from providing restaurant meals to health care professionals, but allow occasional in-office meals that feature informational presentations. In addition, it requires that companies ensure sales representatives are trained about applicable laws, regulations and industry codes of practice, among other provisions. The guideline requests that companies set an annual limit on speaking and consulting arrangements between drug manufacturers and physicians, but does not state what that limit should be. For additional coverage, see the New York Times here.

Register Now for First CBCCT Exam
Only 9 days remain to register for the Certification Board of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CBCCT)'s first examination for certification in CCT. Qualifying ACC members are encouraged to apply for the exam, at a cost of $1,095.00, before the July 25 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.