Earlier this month the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the proposed 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule and the proposed 2016 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) rule. Since then, ACC Advocacy staff members have carefully reviewed both rules and have developed detailed summaries highlighting those provisions that will have the greatest impact on cardiology practices. Read the proposed 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule summary to learn about potential impacts on appropriate use criteria, potentially misvalued services, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, changes to physician self-referral (Stark) rules, advance care planning and other cognitive services, the Physician Quality Reporting System, the Value-Based Modifier, Physician Compare and Qualified Clinical Data Registries. Review the proposed 2016 HOPPS summary to get up-to-speed on proposals related to short hospital inpatient stays, packaging policies, comprehensive ambulatory payment classifications (APC), structural changes to imaging service APCs, and the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program. The ACC is preparing detailed comments that will be submitted in early September. The final rules will be published in November.