Mark
Your Calendar: All-Member Call on Final Rule
The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is expected
to release the final 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
at the end of this month. As the Nov. 1 deadline approaches,
we’ve pulled out all the stops to make sure that the
drastic practice expense cuts proposed by CMS are not implemented.
If this rule goes through as is, it will literally devastate
the private practice of cardiology and outpatient access to
cardiovascular care. ACC President Alfred Bove, M.D., F.A.C.C.,
and CEO Jack Lewin, M.D., will host an all-member call on
Nov. 12 from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (EST) to discuss the 2010 rule.
To RSVP for the call, click
here. For more on ACC’s efforts regarding the proposed
rule, visit: http://qualityfirst.acc.org.
In addition,
the ACC will be running ads in the Washington Post, New
York Times, USA Today, and Chicago Tribune on Thursday
about the final rule. Check these papers for the ACC ad, which
also are posted online.
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CMS
to Hold PQRI Call with Providers
The
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS)
will host a provider conference call on the 2009 Physician
Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) on Nov. 10 from 1:00–
3:00 p.m., EST. The topics covered on this national provider
call will include: updates on 2008 PQRI and 2007 PQRI re-run
incentive payments and feedback reports; results from the
2008 PQRI and 2007 PQRI re-run; an update on 2010 PQRI and
e-prescribing programs; and what to expect on the feedback
report. Registration for the call will close at 1 p.m. on
Nov. 9. Registration is available online.
For those unable to attend, a transcript of the call will
be available at least one week after the call at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/pqri
on the CMS website.
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ACC
Medical Directors’ Institute Focuses on Comparative
Effectiveness
The
ACC held a successful Medical Directors' Institute this week
that brought together ACC leaders and health plan representatives
for thoughtful discussions around comparative effectiveness
research (CER). Attendees heard from a number of key thought
leaders who provided a wide range of perspectives on the issue.
Among the speakers and panelists: Michael McGinnis of the
Institute of Medicine, Myrl Weinberg of the National Health
Council and Carolyn Clancy of the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality. Participants also heard from ACC leaders on College-wide
quality improvement initiatives like the IC3 Program and FOCUS,
the College's newest effort to encourage the use of appropriate
use criteria at the point of care. Participants came away
with an understanding of ways the cardiovascular community
can play a role in CER. A video
of the conference is available from CVN.
Meanwhile,
the ACC on Monday released an advocacy position statement
on “Principles for Comparative Effectiveness Research,”
published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The statement outlines the ACC CER principles and what role
the ACC can play in CER. It concludes: “The ACC is strongly
supportive of a robust CER program that will better inform
the health care decision-making of patients and their health
care professionals.” Read
the position statement in full.
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H2H
Launches with Kick-Off Webinar
ACC’s
quality improvement initiative Hospital to Home (H2H) launched
Oct. 22 with a highly successful kick-off Webinar. H2H’s
goal is to reduce all-cause hospital readmission 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. Join the ACC and the Institute for Healthcare
Improvement by enrolling in Hospital to Home by visiting www.H2HQuality.org
or emailing hospital2home@acc.org.
The Webinar will be archived on the H2H Web site next week.
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