After approving a new specialty designation for "Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology" at the end of 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has completed the necessary steps to create the code and make it available for physicians to use in their provider enrollment. The new code will become effective Oct. 1. Physicians can enroll or update their specialty to reflect the new specialty code "C7" within 60 days of the Oct. 1 implementation date. The new designation will allow CMS to distinguish heart failure (HF) and transplant cardiologists from clinical cardiologists when billing for Medicare services. Previously, no mechanism existed for CMS to accurately identify this category of physician for quality and payment programs. Read more.