‘First
Wave’ of ARRA Health IT Funds Announced Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
and National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
(IT) David Blumenthal last week announced the availability
of $1.2 billion in funds to assist physicians and hospitals
in transitioning to electronic health records (EHRs). The
funds, authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act, will support the Health Information Technology Extension
Program, which provides grants for the establishment of regional
centers that will provide best practices for health care providers,
and the State Health Information Exchange Program, which will
provide grants to state to promote health IT. Sebelius and
Blumenthal said that the grants are the “first wave
of [health IT] grants” and that others will be announced
in the near future. More information is available online.
Look for more health IT coverage in the September issue of
Cardiology magazine.
Medicare,
Medicaid Spending Expected to Rise Rapidly, CBO Announces The
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced recently that
the budget deficit will reach $1.6 trillion in 2009, or 11.2
percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Last year, outlays
for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security accounted for about
9 percent of GDP. Outstripping the growth of GDP, spending
for those programs is expected to rise rapidly over the next
10 years, totaling nearly 12 percent of GDP by 2019. White
House budget director and former CBO director Peter Orszag
said that health reform is necessary to reduce the rising
Medicare and Medicaid spending. "I know some will say
this report proves we can't afford health reform. I think
that analysis has it backwards," Orszag said. "Given
the long-term nature of that problem, we simply can't afford
to wait." The Washington Post has more
coverage. The full budget update is available online.
QUALITY
Administration
Holds Health Reform Call with Physicians The
Obama administration held a call on August 25 with physicians
to discuss their concerns on health care reform. ACC CEO Jack
Lewin writes on ACC’s blog, The
Lewin Report: “While the call was a great idea --
to get us engaged and accurately informed on their policy
recommendations to Congress -- it's tough to pull this kind
of communication off well. The reforms proposed are overdue.
IF, that is, Congress enacts them.” Read the post in
full at http://lewinreport.acc.org/post/Calling-All-Physicians.aspx.
STATE
ACC
Chapters Take Action on Proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule ACC
Chapters across the country have made remarkable efforts to
mobilize around the drastic cuts to cardiovascular services
proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) under the proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule. More
than 1,500 e-mails, faxes, letters and phone calls had been
placed to congressional offices across the country. Chapters
have sent letters to their entire state congressional delegations
and scheduled face-to-face meetings with members of Congress
during August recess. The Michigan and Pennsylvania Chapters
have hosted “Cardiologist for a Day” events. The
Kentucky, Louisiana, Indiana, Maryland and South Carolina
Chapters all have events scheduled for the near future.
Meanwhile,
the Florida Chapter sponsored a rally of about 2,500 individuals
— including hundreds of cardiovascular professionals
— in downtown Orlando on August 21 to protest the proposed
rule. Event speakers discussed the devastating effects that
the implementation of the rule will have on patients’
access to diagnostic testing and quality of care. On the panel
of speakers was U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D), who promised he
would work to stop the cuts from going into effect. More
coverage is available from the Orlando Sentinel.
