Congress has recessed for two weeks for Thanksgiving (they went home for a different kind of “gobble-de-gook”). After failing to pass or veto-override any major health or domestic spending legislation recently, the fate of the impending physician payment cuts is grim. 

When lawmakers return on Dec. 3, they will have very little time to get their business done before adjourning as late as Dec. 21. As we were quoted in Congressional Quarterly (CQ) this week, the “only good news is that both Houses desperately want to get a two-year SGR band-aid proposal passed next month so as not to have to face this issue again next year in an election cycle." But, if they do pull a rabbit out of the hat, where’s the money coming from? Hopefully not from imaging or procedure cuts---and we are working hard to prevent that approach.

IT’S NOT TIME TO GIVE UP for this year! This is where the ACC and all of you reading this can play a critical role. Our ongoing efforts to stop the Medicare physician payment cuts and fix the “Un-Sustainable” Growth Rate Formula (SGR) are the top priority. All ACC members should use the ACC’s CardioAdvocacy Network (www.acc.org/can) to contact their members of Congress and urge them to stop the latest round of cuts. VISITING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHILE THEY’RE HOME FOR THE RECESS WOULD BE POWERFUL.

On a broader level, the ACC’s involvement in health system reform is key to truly transforming the health care system. We talk about that in every Congressional encounter. Faced with the latest CBO projections (see earlier post), we owe it to the future generations of patients and health care professionals to start searching for viable solutions now--or, more realistically, over the next few years.