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.

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.

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.

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.