A Perfect Storm: A critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors.

As cardiovascular professionals, our top priority is, and always will be, delivering the best possible care to our patients. Throughout our careers, we continuously strengthen our knowledge and skills through various education opportunities in order to ensure we are the best providers we can be. While our dedication to medicine is unwavering, the health care system is failing us, and has been for some time.

At the epicenter of the problem is the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) that has plagued health care for more than a decade. This flawed formula continues to loom over practices and physicians, threatening the stability that is needed to improve quality and efficiency. Congress has kicked the can down the road for far too long, failing to fix the problem once and for all and instead relying on temporary patches that provide little financial certainty to practices and weaken the sustainability of the Medicare program. The SGR issue, coupled with the millions of patients who are expected to enter an already taxed health care system as part of Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation, could present significant access issues for Medicare beneficiaries in the near future.

According to CMS, the ACA aims to “enhance the quality of care for all Americans.” While we all want to see the health care system strengthened, how can America’s health improve if those responsible for providing care to millions are constantly faced with detrimental payment cuts?

These two factors arguably make the next few months the most crucial for health care reform. The good news is that Congress is finally listening to what we’ve been saying all along: the flawed SGR formula is weakening access to care and hindering health care quality. A bill that would repeal the SGR, provide a period of stable payment updates, and move towards a payment system that rewards physicians for providing high quality care was recently passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A Senate Finance Committee bill is also expected in the coming weeks. Without congressional action in the next few months, the SGR will continue to serve as a massive roadblock and threaten not only physicians, but the entire care team and millions of patients across the country.

ACC members from coast to coast will join together in DC in a few weeks to discuss issues facing cardiology as part of the 2013 Legislative Conference. SGR and ACA implementation will surely be hot topics, in addition to the importance of preserving the In-Office Ancillary Services Exception and the role of guidelines and registries in quality improvement. The meeting will arm the entire cardiac care team with the information and tools necessary to effect change on both the state and national level. Most importantly, nearly 400 members from across the spectrum of cardiology meet directly with congressional leaders who are making important health care decisions that impact us all.

I encourage all of you to take an active role in advocacy, either by getting involved in your chapter’s efforts, or attending health policy sessions at ACC.14 or Legislative Conference. We must join together to drive the cardiology conversation in Washington, not only in September, but all year long.

Stay tuned to CardioSource.org and follow @Cardiology on Twitter for updates and pictures from Legislative Conference. Questions about the conference? Contact Elizabeth Shaw at eshaw[at]acc.org.

 

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