Senate Expected to Vote on Medicare in Early June
The Senate is expected to vote in early June on Medicare legislation being crafted by the Senate Finance Committee to halt the scheduled 10.6 percent physician payment cut. In a letter sent April 30, ACC President Douglas Weaver, M.D., F.A.C.C., thanked Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) for his efforts to halt the 10.6 percent Medicare physician payment cut and to provide positive updates for 18 months, as well as relief for physicians in rural areas. The letter indicates the ACC's willingness to work with Sen. Baucus to replace the sustainable growth rate formula with a new system that aligns incentives for the provision of appropriate, high-quality patient care and more accurately reflects physician practice costs. In addition, the letter thanked Sen. Baucus for his commitment to extending the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative. To view a copy of the letter, visit: http://www.acc.org/advocacy/advoc_issues/rc_medicare.htm.

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 contact your senators, call the ACC's toll-free Grassroots Hotline at (800) 210-7193.

Congress Renews Efforts to Limit Physician-Owned Specialty Hospitals
Language that would significantly prohibit the existence and growth in physician-owned specialty hospitals is once again making its way in the Senate, this time in the war supplemental spending bill to be taken up by the Senate Appropriations Committee later this week. Efforts to undermine physician-owned hospitals have been present in other bills, such as the House version of the mental health parity bill and the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007. Most recently, efforts were made to attach similar language to the Senate Farm Bill. The ACC opposes language to prohibit the existence and growth in physician-owned specialty hospitals and urges members to call their Senators and Representatives to urge them to keep specialty hospital language from any legislation. To contact your lawmakers directly, call the ACC toll-free grassroots hotline at 1-800-210-7193.

Senate Finance Holds First in a Series of Health Reform Hearings
The Senate Finance Committee last week launched the first of a series of at least eight hearings this year on health care reform. The first hearing featured testimony from former Health and Human Services Secretaries Tommy Thompson and Donna Shalala. Thompson testified that initial reform should focus more narrowly on revamping Medicare. While Shalala disagreed with the narrow focus, she did argue that fixing Medicare should be key component of any health system reform. The hearings are designed to help the Finance Committee “prepare for the challenge of building consensus.” Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) cited several “shared principles” including universal coverage, reducing costs, payment incentives for rewarding quality and efficiency and greater use of health information technology as a few of the proposals “that can transform our delivery system.” The Finance Committee plans to have two more health overhaul hearings before hosting a June 16 “summit” for the entire Congress. The ACC is closely following the hearings and looking for opportunities to provide testimony on the physician’s role in health system reform. For more on the ACC's health care reform efforts, visit http:\\qualityfirst.acc.org.

CMS Announces PHR Pilot Program
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last Wednesday announced a pilot to test the use an online personal health record (PHR) by Medicare beneficiaries in South Carolina. The project, called "MyPHRSC," is intended to determine future steps for PHR use by Medicare beneficiaries, and to encourage beneficiaries to use online resources to track health care services and improve communication with their providers. The PHRs will be populated automatically with key information from hospital and provider medical claims after the patient registers and requests the information. Prescription drug information will not be automatically entered into the PHR but patients can choose to enter the information. The PHR will allow the patient to control who has access to view the information and with whom to share the information. It also offers educational tools for patients about certain health topics. The pilot, which began on April 4, is scheduled to last for 12 months. For more information about the pilot program, visit its Web site at www.MyPHRSC.com.

FDA Reminds Health Care Professionals of Heparin Recall
FDA is reminding health care professionals about the recall of injectable heparin products and heparin flush solutions that may be contaminated with oversulfated chondroitin sulfate. Since the recall, contaminated heparin products have been found in use at medical care facilities in one state, and it is suspected that medical facilities in other states also have not fully acted on the recall. The FDA requests that medical practitioners and facilities review and examine all drug and device storage areas to ensure that all heparin products have been removed and are not available for use. In addition, the FDA is informing medical professionals about other medical devices that contain, or are coated with, heparin. For more information, visit the FDA Web site here.

Registration Deadline Approaches for First CBCCT Exam
The regular deadline for registering for the Certification Board of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CBCCT)'s first examination for certification in CCT is on May 23, with the exam to be held on Sept. 22. The exam will be offered in Prometric testing centers across the country and will consist of up to 200 multiple-choice questions, lasting four and one half 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 regular application deadline for the exam is May 23, at a cost of $895.00. The late application deadline is July 25, at a cost of $1,095.00. The Candidate Bulletins and application forms are available at the CBCCT Web site here. Qualifying ACC members are encouraged to register for the certification examination by the May 23 deadline.

Michigan Senate Approves Smoke-Free Bill
The Michigan Senate on May 8 voted 25-12 to approve a bill that would ban smoking in all Michigan bars, restaurants and workplaces. The Senate voted on the bill after a special administrative procedure was used to release it from its committee without a vote. The use of the administrative procedure to release the bill highlights the strong pressure exerted by state advocates for smoke-free legislation, including the Michigan Chapter of the ACC, which held its first "Cardiology Day at the Capitol" on April 23 to advocate for passage of the bill. The event proved a great success, bringing together more than 20 cardiovascular specialists and representatives from the American Heart Association with lawmakers. After the event, Chapter members continued their advocacy efforts by placing calls to senators to gain support for the bill.

The House in December 2007 passed its version of the legislation, which included exemptions -- not passed in the Senate -- for cigars bars, casinos and bingo halls. Because the Senate version is different than the House version, the bill must return to the House for additional consideration. Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) has said she will sign smoke-free legislation.