This post was authored by Jim Fasules, MD, FACC, senior vice president of Advocacy for the ACC.

This week more than 350 ACC members were in our nation’s capital for the College’s 21st Annual Legislative Conference. ACC’s leaders, FACCs, FITs, CCAs, Practice Administrators and even international members were all on hand to participate in briefings on the critical health policy issues facing medicine today.

The conference kicked-off on Sunday with a special reception and dinner celebrating the 10th Anniversary of ACC’s Political Action Committee. During the keynote speech, Pulitzer Prize winner and syndicated Washington Post columnist George Will shared his insider’s perspective of the current political climate and the impending presidential election. Filled with facts and baseball references, Will was able to engage a packed room full of attendees from both sides of the aisle.

On Monday members heard from ACC President William Zoghbi, MD, FACC, who presented results from the 2012 Practice Census, (read more about the results on CardioSource.org), as well as from a range of politicos including an election outlook from Ronald Brownstein.

Earlier today Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX) was presented with the President’s Award for his distinguished public service and support of the College’s health policies that promote high-quality patient-centered care.  Soon after, conference participants headed to Capitol Hill for a day full of pre-arranged meetings with their members of Congress. Given the current health care landscape, members stressed the importance of Congress avoiding further harmful spending cuts and reforming the Medicare payment system. With 295 separate legislator meetings scheduled, the ACC’s commitment to quality and patient-centered care was heard loud and clear on the Hill.

Our actions and advocacy efforts this week are important for many reasons. We are dependent on Congressional action to prevent upcoming cuts from the sustainable growth rate (SGR). In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has already proposed an array of new policies for the 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (read ACC’s comments on the proposed rule here) that include both threats and opportunities for cardiology. These proposed policies include:

• The final year of transition to new PE RVUs causes small reductions to most cardiology services.
• A proposed multiple procedure payment reduction for a wide range of diagnostic cardiology services (e.g., echocardiography, stress tests, vascular ultrasound) would reduce the technical component payment for the second and any subsequent service by 25 percent if performed on the same day.  ACC has vigorously opposed this proposal.
• Medicare has proposed for the first time to pay for transitional care services for patients discharged from hospitals or skilled nursing facilities. Physicians providing care coordination services within the first 30 days of discharge would have the opportunity to bill Medicare for these services. The ACC sees this as an important step forward for Medicare, but expressed some concerns about the specifics of the proposal. We’re hopeful that CMS will make some changes to ensure that patients with cardiovascular disease benefit from the new policy.
• If CMS goes forward with its proposed rules, physicians in groups with 25 or more practitioners will be the first to be subject to the value-based payment modifier established in the Affordable Care Act. Also, beginning in 2015, groups of 25 or more will be subject to a 1 percent penalty or may be eligible for bonus payments based on PQRS participation and performance on quality and cost measures in 2013, and practices with 25 or more physicians and other practitioners will need to take action in the first quarter of 2013 to avoid the penalty and ensure potential eligibility for bonus payments.

Although CMS will review comments and release final decisions on these proposals soon, our efforts on the Hill this week will inevitably help raise awareness of the issues facing cardiology today. Stay tuned to the ACC Advocate and CardioSource.org for updates this fall. Also stay tuned for individual perspectives from Legislative Conference here on the blog in the coming days.

[youtuber youtube='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeTML_7z_pc']