Did you know? The Wall Street Journal Reported on November 24th that the death rate from coronary heart disease dropped 34% from 1995 to 2005, though it is still the biggest killer in the U.S. Deaths from cardiovascular disease dropped 26% over the same period. Deaths from stroke dropped 29% since 1999. Average total cholesterol in adults aged 20 to 74 dropped 197 milligrams per deciliter in 2008 from 222 in 1962.

Download the editorial from the Wall Street Journal (Word format or .pdf format)

Did you know? Overall heart failure (HF) hospitalization rates among Medicare patients has declined significantly since 1998, with the overall one-year mortality rate also declining slightly over the past decade, according to a new study published in theJournal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Considered the largest study to date examining trends in HF hospitalization rates across the United States, the study showed heart failure hospitalizations dropped nearly 30 percent between 1998 and 2008. Click here for additional information. Click here to see the Bloomburg News story about how this saved Medicare an estimated $4 Billion.

PAYMENT REFORM

Current public and private payment systems do little to reward or facilitate quality or coordination of care. Provider payment systems must be redesigned with the patient’s interests in mind. They must reward patient value — high quality, cost-effective care. The ACC supports payment reforms for improved coordination of care, team-based care delivery, and the appropriate use of tests and procedures.

ACC and the FCACC have been asking Congress to change the flawed system. See http://www.cardiosource.org/Advocacy/Issues/Physician-Payment.aspx for recent letters to and from lawmakers.

Medicare continues to CUT CARDIOVASCULAR SERVICES - THIS TIME 29.5%

CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is faced with serving all physicians (include cardiologists) a 29.5% cut in fees on January 1st, 2012 unless Congress acts. Practices have faced this same scenario each of the last15 years. It is difficult to run a practice not knowing the if the price of payment with rapidly decrease in only a few short weeks.

This massive scheduled decrease is part of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) calculation that must be continually updated by congressional action to prevents cuts each year. Congress needs to stabilize payment rates in the near-term so we can work on long-tern payment reform.

2010 Integration for Practices PUSHED MEDICARE COSTS HIGHER

With payment decreasing, instability of payment rates from Medicare due to the SGR and small business overhead increasing (cost of materials, accreditation, and healthcare for employees) 27% of practices in a recent survey reluctantly signed contracts making them hospital employees**. Because the nature of cardiovascular medicine, set schedules could have a great impact on patient access to their physician.

Destruction of Private Practice COMMUNITIES SUFFER

Because cardiologists are hospital employees, often using the same equipment and office setting, Medicare must now pay larger fees for the same office visits, follow-up consults and procedures. The majority of CV private practices have halted the purchase of new equipment (63%), reduced staff (56%), reduced benefits (56%) and reduced salaries (51over the last two years. Some have limited their services (30%), reduced office hours (24%) and limited new Medicare patients (15%).