After great effort by the Heart Failure Society of America and the ACC, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) informed both societies that a new specialty designation for “Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology” has been approved. The new designation will allow CMS to distinguish heart failure (HF) and transplant cardiologists from clinical cardiologists when billing for Medicare services. Previously, no mechanism existed for CMS to accurately identify this category of physician for quality and payment programs. Some local Medicare carriers have denied claims in the past, citing duplicate billing, when a cardiologist and an HF specialist from the same practice have billed for patient evaluation services. Once CMS takes necessary steps to create the new code, which could take up to a year or more, it will allow for the reporting of the involvement of two specialty physicians providing distinct services to an individual patient. Stay tuned for more information following the creation and implementation of the new code. Read more on ACC.org.