President's Message
December 2009
Robert E. Hobbs, MD, FACC
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 2010 Physician Fee Schedule rule issued in late October will have a devastating impact on cardiovascular practices. For millions of heart patients in America the results could be severe - loss of outpatient services, reduced access, higher fees for hospital imaging, and longer waits. This is why heart patients and cardiovascular professionals are coming together NOW to fight the CMS cuts. (More information here.)
President's Message Practice Management Tools Inform Health Plans about New Nuclear Cardiology CPT® Codes 19th Annual Meeting - A Success Thank you
Newsletter Links
What Is the ACC Doing? The ACC and your leaders have been working tirelessly to turn the situation around. National ACC President Dr. Alfred Bove wrote a very important piece entitled An Arrow to the Heart -- please read it here.
OHACC Home Page Email the Editor Print Newsletter
Virtual Fly-In On Monday, December 7, through Friday, December 11, American College of Cardiology members are invited to email, call and meet with their members of Congress. On Monday, the ACC will start with a Virtual Fly-In where members can contact their legislators via email or phone via our CardioAdvocacy Network (CAN) website -- www.acc.org/can.
Join our Facebook group. Follow us on Twitter.
Go to Washington, DC In addition, ACC members are invited to come to Capitol Hill on either Tuesday, December 8, Wednesday, December 9 or Thursday, December 10. RSVP to grassroots@acc.org as soon as possible! If you cannot make it to Washington, D.C. and would like to meet with your member of Congress or their staff locally, contact grassroots@acc.org.
ACC Chapter Reception at ACC Scientific Session Sunday, March 14, 2010 Atlanta, GA
47th Annual Carl J. Wiggers Memorial Lecture Guest Lecturer: David Holmes, MD, FACC Wednesday, April 21, 2010 The Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland
Give to the ACC PAC It is critical that we each make a contribution to the ACC Political Action Committee (PAC). We all can agree that money talks, and now is the time for us to have our voices heard. Please give generously at https://www.accpacweb.org/ssl/
3rd Annual Cardiac Care Associate Cardiovascular Update Wednesday, April 21, 2010 The Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland
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Please spread the word, and let your other colleagues know!
Practice Management Tools
Ohio Legislative Day Tuesday, April 27, 2010 The Hyatt on Capitol Square Columbus, OH
Ohio-ACC NCDR Training Conference Friday, May 12, 2010 The Conference Center at NorthPointe Lewis Center, OH
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Attention practice managers! Join the ACC today. Learn more. Is your practice hiring? Post a positition on the Ohio-ACC Career Center. Why not include information about CardioSmart on your practice website? Learn how.
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New! Practice Survival Toolkit
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20th Annual Meeting of the OhioACC Saturday, October 16, 2010 The Conference Center at NorthPointe Lewis Center, OH
The ACC has created a practice survival toolkit in response to the unjustified and unprecedented cuts to cardiology in the 2010 Physician Fee Schedule. The toolkit includes an expansive array of information and resources. Topics range from simple advice such as collecting co-payments at the time of service to options for future business plans. The toolkit aims to allow the survival of the practice of cardiology in the U.S. so that cardiovascular professionals can continue to deliver the reductions in mortality and the improved quality of life unique to the specialty. View the Practice Survival Toolkit. Participate in the new PINNACLE Network™ Participate in the new PINNACLE Network™. This first-ever, registry-based cardiovascular network is designed to provide practices with the tools they need to promote practice innovations and achieve clinical excellence. Learn more.
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Inform Health Plans about New Nuclear Cardiology CPT® Codes The ACC, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC), and Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) sent letters to more than 35 health insurers to inform them of the new SPECT-MPI CPT codes that will become effective January 1. The letters, co-signed by the organizations' presidents, provide a coding crosswalk from 2009 to 2010 and express the importance of correctly loading the new CPT codes and updating the insurers' medical policies in a timely manner. The letters also ask for the health plans to maintain the reimbursement for SPECT-MPI at the 2009 fee schedule rates including payment for wall motion and ejection fraction.
Sample Practice Letter The medical societies also drafted a sample letter template for practices to send to their top health plans. This letter again stresses the importance of implementing these new codes as soon as possible and also asks for a meeting between the practice and health plan to discuss the 2010 fee schedule. We encourage all members and practices to contact their health plans to discuss their 2010 reimbursement rates particularly for SPECT-MPI and echocardiography (93306) . The practice letter is located on the ACC Quality First website at: http://qualityfirst.acc.org/advocacy/Documents/Practice_Nuclear_CPT_Codes_Letter_.DOC
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