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Visit the Ohio Legislative Action Center!
Ohio-ACC Chapter Night Reception
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Atlanta, GA
Stay tuned for more details!
43rd Annual Carl J. Wiggers Memorial Lecture
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
The Ritz-Carlton, Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Guest Lecturer:
Victor J. Dzau, MD, FACC
Advanced Reimbursement & Coding Workshop for Cardiology
Tuesday, April 25, 2006, Cincinnati
Wednesday, April 26, 2006, Columbus
Thursday, April 27, 2006, Cleveland
Workshop 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Call 1.800.227.7888 to register.
16th Annual Meeting of the Ohio-ACC
Saturday, October 14, 2006
The Conference Center at Northpointe
Columbus, Ohio
Special thanks to Genentech for their support of this newsletter.
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Fate of the One-year Physician Payment Freeze up in the Air
Philip M. Dorfman, MD, FACC
The ACC has informed us of the following: "The House of Representatives approved a Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Reconciliation package at around 6:00 a.m. on Monday, December 19, by a vote of 212 to 206. The Senate approved the Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Reconciliation bill December 21. by a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Cheney cutting his Middle-East trip short to cast the tie-breaking vote. However, due to the use of Senate procedural rules by Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Kent Conrad (D-ND), the bill must be sent back to the House for a vote again. Each chamber must pass identical bills; therefore, the package must be voted on by the House again. This leaves the fate of the one-year physician payment freeze up in the air.
"The ACC staff said that most lawmakers are back in their districts for the holidays, and will not return to Washington until the full House reconvenes Jan. 31. The House could have held a voice vote on the budget package on Dec. 22, but House Democrats opposed this route. Unless the House is called back to session earlier, the budget reconciliation package will not be taken up again until the House reconvenes on Jan. 31. The 4.4 percent Medicare physician payment cut will go into effect on Jan. 1.
"The ACC staff projects that the House will not come back early and that reconciliation will not happen until next year, if at all. The Democrats clearly do not want reconciliation passed. They voted against it in both the Senate and House; they used a technical procedural move in the Senate to amend it knowing that the House had already left; and, most recently, they would not allow for a voice vote in the House.
Outlook/ACC Next Steps
"The ACC will issue a press release expressing disappointment that Congress was not able to find the dollars to fix a flawed physician payment system, and then paid for a one-year Medicare physician payment freeze by cutting office-based medical imaging. In addition, your involvement will be critical in considering a strategy for 2006 that would seek to eliminate the imaging provision from the current reconciliation bill without killing relief for all physicians through a freeze on Medicare payments."
Visit the Ohio-ACC Legislative Action Center today.
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Ohio-ACC Call for Nominations
Submit your recommendations for the upcoming Ohio Chapter-ACC elections. The 2006-08 slate includes vacancies for Trustee positions in Cleveland and in Dayton as well as the pediatric member-at-large position and the cardiovascular surgical member-at-large position. The deadline for receipt of recommendations is Monday, January 9, 2006.
You may recommend a colleague or yourself if these requirements are met: nominees must be Fellows, Associate Fellows, Affiliates, Distinguished Fellows and Honorary Fellows of the American College of Cardiology. Please assist your Chapter by helping select its leaders.
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Cardiology Fellows-in-Training News to Use
Rohit Mehta, MD
Imagine five years from now, passing a radiologist in the hall and asking, “How did you end up reading those cath films?” As a fellow-in-training, we are inundated with clinical teachings, research proposals, and educational responsibilities. However, when starting our post-graduate careers, we are often blindsided by the political struggles that exist in our profession.
The American College of Cardiology has a tremendous advocacy network in place that is missing one small piece: YOU. Without participation from fellows-in-training, the College is missing the next generation of political leadership, allowing scenarios such as the one above to become a reality. We urge you to join the Cardio Advocacy Network (ACC/CAN) and/or the ACC’s political action committee (ACC/PAC) to help support the already robust movement at the national level. More than monetary support, letters and calls to congressmen about key issues will allow you to become a more vigorous advocate for your patients.
In 2006, the Ohio-ACC Chapter Meeting will undergo a transformation. A program specific for fellows-in-training will be developed that focuses on matters that are important to us. Whether it’s “how to evaluate an employment contract,” “deciding between academics and private practice,” or learning how we can become involved in shaping the cardiology of tomorrow, the curriculum will be shaped by you. A process is currently in place to gather representatives for the planning committee that represents the spectrum of trainees across Ohio. If you are interested in helping to shape next year’s program, please contact ohioacc@aol.com.
Rohit Mehta, MD, chief cardiology fellow at The Ohio State University, has been appointed as the FIT representative to the Ohio-ACC Board of Trustees. He represents all Ohio cardiology fellows, so if you have an idea or a concern as an FIT, please email him.
Cardiology Fellows Compete in October 2005 Ohio-ACC Poster Competition
Congratulations to all of the fellows who participated in the poster competition held in conjunction with the Ohio-ACC 15th Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 29, 2005, at The Conference Center at Northpointe. There was a tie for first place! Congratulations to William Mills, MD (MetroHealth/CWRU) and Subramanya Prasad, MD (Cleveland Clinic). Both winners received a $500 prize.
Thank you to all fellow-in-training participants who attended: Sunil Advani, MD; Shyam Bhakta, MD; Amit Doshi, MD; Mark Iler, MD; Srinivas Iyengar, MD; William Mills, MD; Thomas O'Brien, MD; Dimpi Patel, MD; Quan Van Pham, MD; Subramanya Prasad, MD; Roopinder Sandhu, MD; Mehdi Shishehbor, MD; Sunil Shroff, MD; Sergio Thal, MD; Jodi Tinkel, MD; and John Zakaib, MD.
We Congratulate Our Ohio Award Winners
Shyam Bhakta, MD, (CWRU/UH) is a recipient of the 2006 ACCF/Bristol-Myers Squibb Travel Award.
Amit Doshi, MD, (OSU) is a Russek Cardiovascular Symposium Grant Winner.
Have you won an award? Let us know!
Big 10 Fellows Summit Announced
Sponsored and planned by The Ohio State University cardiology fellows, the Big 10 Cardiology Fellows Summit will take place April 21-23, 2006, at the Ross Heart Hospital/The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. Organized as the first ever regional/national meeting designed specifically for fellows-in-training, sessions will feature didactics on board relevant topics, career development advice, and career counseling from experts around the nation. Speakers committed to the conference include: Catherine M. Otto, MD., Cynthia Tracy, MD., and William T. Abraham, MD. For more information, please contact Rohit Mehta, MD.
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New CPT Codes Were Slated to Take Effect January 1
The updated Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Category III codes released by the American Medical Association were slated to go into effect on Jan. 1. However, the ACC has been informed that CMS inadvertently processed the new Category III CPT codes for Coronary CT Angiography (CCTA) with a status indicator of "I", not valid for Medicare. The Nov. 2005 Federal Register Final Rule stated the Category III CPT codes 0144T through 0151T would have a status indicator of "C", meaning carrier priced. Local Medicare carriers would decide whether or not to cover the procedure codes and what the Medicare allowable would be. CMS will be sending out a "One Time Notification" change request to the carriers and also an updated HCPCS file to correct the new CCTA codes to a status indicator of "C.” Until the status indicator is corrected, providers should verify how their local carriers want these procedures recorded and submitted. If you have further questions, please contact the Carrier Medical Director's office at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/mcd/index_contractorsites.asp. Additionally, CPT codes 0144T through 0151T will not be published in the 2006 CPT Manual. AMA stated these codes are slated for publishing in the 2007 book.
The seven codes plus one add-on (codes 0144T-1051T) address computed tomography (CT) and are designed to facilitate data collection and assessment in order to help validate the widespread usage of new technologies, services, and procedures.
The new codes were developed to address the vast differences between the CT techniques for high-quality CCTA and the examinations described by 71275 – CTA of the thorax. CPT codes and reimbursement for CTA of the thorax was originally developed and valued for imaging of non-cardiac structures within the chest cavity. It was not valued to evaluate the coronary arteries, calcium scoring, structure or function of the heart. The performance of CCTA differs significantly from CTA of the thorax in regard to physician and technical work involving patient preparation and monitoring, scanning protocols, data acquisition, software used, post-processing analysis and interpretation.
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A United Voice Sends a Strong Message - Be a Part of the OSMA
Membership in the OSMA is an investment in the profession of medicine - and in your practice. Become a member and you'll be among more than 15,000 other Ohio physicians who know that unity means unparalleled representation on issues impacting medicine. The math is simple - the more physicians that support the OSMA through membership, the stronger our voice in the Statehouse, in Washington and with third-party payers. To find out more about the benefits of OSMA membership, please visit www.osma.org
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