American College of Cardiology

Obama Addresses Congress on Health Care Reform
President Obama today will deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress on health care reform. Vice President Joe Biden said earlier this week that the speech will outline “in understandable, clear terms what our administration wants to happen with regard to health care, and what we are going to push for specifically.” According to the Washington Post, “senior administration officials said the speech will satisfy demands that he clarify which provisions he supports and which he could jettison.” For more on ACC’s stance on health care reform, visit http://qualityfirst.acc.org.

Live Coverage of ACC’s 2009 Legislative Conference
Visit ACC’s blog, The Lewin Report, from Sept. 13-15 for live coverage of the 2009 Legislative Conference! ACC CEO Jack Lewin, M.D., and several ACC members will be blogging from the conference about their experiences talking to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. If you’re not attending the conference, participate virtually by commenting on the blog or tweeting to ACC’s @Cardiology account.

ACC Submits Comments on Hospital Payment
The ACC on August 28 submitted comments on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ proposed Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) rule. The comments support CMS’ proposal to strengthen the coverage policies for cardiac rehabilitation. However, the ACC has concerns over the proposed program delivery models, which require a minimum of two sessions per week, and the mandated outcomes assessment. The ACC in its comments also supports the proposal to allow licensed non-physician practitioners to serve as supervising professionals for therapeutic services. The comments also discuss the addition of two cardiology-related performance measures:

• SPECT MPI and Stress Echocardiography for Preoperative Evaluation for Low-Risk Non-Cardiac Surgery Risk Assessment
• Use of Stress Echocardiography or SPECT MPI Post-Revascularization Coronary Artery Bypass Graft.

Reporting on the performance measures would be required for payment updates under HOPPS. The ACC supports the inclusion of these measures, which are based on ACC performance measures, “if they remain consistent with those appropriate use criteria” and CMS “continue[s] to engage stakeholders.” The comment letter can be viewed online.

FDA Approvals
The Food and Drug Administration has approved six new volumes and concentrations of heparin, ranging from one milliliter to 30 milliliters in size and from 1,000 units/milliliter to 10,000 units/milliliter in concentration. Heparin is manufactured by Hospira, Inc. More information is available from the Associated Press/Forbes.

The FDA also has approved Roche’s Valcyte (valganciclovir hydrochloride) to prevent cytomegalovirus in children ages 4 months to 16 years who receive heart or kidney transplants. The FDA has approved a new oral liquid version of the drug to make for easier use by children. More coverage is available from HealthDay.

NY Times Examines Hospital Handoffs
The New York Times recently examined how “[h]ospitalized patients ... are passed between doctors an average of 15 times during a single five-day hospitalization.” This handoff has “led to improvements in certain aspects of quality of care and better rested physicians” but it has “also resulted in frank fragmentation” and “misunderstanding and miscommunication.” The ACC is addressing one handoff prevalent in cardiology through a new campaign called “Hospital to Home.” This campaign focuses on "excellence in transitions" by reducing the 30-day, all-cause hospital readmission rates among patients discharged with heart failure or acute myocardial infarction by 20 percent nationally by December 2012. For more information or to enroll, visit: www.acc.org/h2h/enrollment.