American College of Cardiology

Senate Finance Committee Approves Health Reform Bill
The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday approved its version of health care reform legislation in a 14-9 vote, after receiving a favorable scoring of its bill from the Congressional Budget Office last week. The Senate leadership will now merge the Finance Committee legislation with the legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a Senate floor vote. In the House, leadership is merging the three bills reported out of committee and a final bill is expected to receive a floor vote the last week of October.

The ACC has been active in discussing health care reform with administration officials and lawmakers, but has not endorsed any legislation. Specifically, the ACC appreciates the SGR reforms and PQRI incentives contained in the House legislation, as well as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Innovations Center in the Senate legislation. The ACC is disappointed that the Senate legislation does not contain a longer term SGR fix, and does not support the Senate bill’s PQRI penalties or penalties for physicians who are outliers based on resource use. In addition, the ACC opposes the imaging equipment use rate change in both the House and Senate legislation, which will result in lower payments for imaging services. ACC staff attended three meetings on Capitol Hill with the National Coalition on Health Care to discuss reform legislation. Meanwhile, the ACC Political Action Committee (ACCPAC) participated in events for Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.). ACC CEO Jack Lewin, M.D., also attended a White House Rose Garden address on health care reform last week. For more on ACC’s health care reform efforts, visit: http://qualityfirst.acc.org, or leave your thoughts on ACC’s blog, The Lewin Report.

ACC Continues Fight Against Proposed Physician Pay Cuts
In related news, the ACC also has been hard at work opposing the proposed cuts to the Medicare physician fee schedule. In the House, 59 members have signed on to the Gonzalez/Rogers letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Twenty-five letters from individual House and Senate members also have been sent to CMS. Five calls have been placed to the agency from federal lawmakers, while members from Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma have sent or will send letters from their delegation to CMS. In Florida, the letter had signatures from a majority of the delegation including bipartisan support.

Meanwhile, representatives of several cardiovascular organizations including the ACC met with the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss their concerns regarding the calculation of practice expense relative value units under the proposed 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The groups urged the delay implementing this proposal until there is further review and analysis. The final rule is due out by Nov. 1 and an all-member call is scheduled for Nov. 12 from 4-5:30 pm EDT. To RSVP for the call, click here. More information on this call will be forthcoming. For more on ACC’s efforts regarding the proposed rule, visit: http://qualityfirst.acc.org. Patient materials and sample letters to lawmakers are also available at www.acc.org/can.

Recall Notice: Unomedical’s Manual Pulmonary Resuscitator
The Food and Drug Administration and Unomedical have recalled the company’s single-patient use Manual Pulmonary Resuscitator because of a malfunction that may impair the ability of the device to generate the positive pressure necessary to function properly. The affected resuscitators were manufactured between July 2002 and March 2008. More information is available from the company online.

Enroll in H2H Now! Kick-Off Webinar on Oct. 22
Join the ACC and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement by enrolling in Hospital to Home (H2H), a new quality improvement initiative to reduce unnecessary readmission rates for cardiovascular patients that launches Oct. 22. The goal is to reduce all-cause re-admission rates among patients discharged with heart failure or acute myocardial infarction by 20 percent by December 2012. H2H Steering Committee Co-Chair Harlan Krumholz, M.D., F.A.C.C., discusses the initiative and the challenges in reducing preventable readmissions in greater detail on ACC’s blog, The Lewin Report. Read more and comment. The H2H initiative will host an official launch webinar for all H2H participants on Oct. 22 at 1p.m. EDT. To enroll or learn more, please visit www.H2HQuality.org or email hospital2home@acc.org.

Tort Reform Could Save $54B, New CBO Research Finds
Tort reform could save $54 billion for the health care system over the next 10 years, 10 times more than estimated in the past, according to a letter from Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The report found that using a variety of reforms, including a $250,000 cap on damages for pain and suffering and a $500,000 cap on punitive damages, could reduce national health care spending by 0.5 percent, with the federal government earning a significant portion of these savings through reduced Medicare costs. Elmendorf said that the research shows that tort reforms could lower malpractice insurance premiums for health care providers and lower the number of defensive tests and procedures performed. Elmendorf’s letter to Sen. Hatch is available online. More coverage is available from the Washington Post.