February 2010

The New Year provides an opportunity to turn a corner and not look back. At the American College of Cardiology (ACC), our initial focus is to apply all means necessary to mitigate the impacts of the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule rule, which resulted in drastic payment cuts for cardiology. The rule is bad policy. It will not only hurt access to care, particularly for disadvantaged populations, but will dramatically increase Medicare costs by shifting services to the hospital setting. The college is working all anglesregulatory, legislative and legalto reverse the most egregious elements of the rule.

Even though manual compression dates back to the 1950s, the adoptioan of vascular closure devices (VCDs) is rapidly growing, despite modest comparative research. Nevertheless, the extant researchand anecdotal experienceis helping to define best practices for this evolving field.

Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) is an interventional cardiology boutique conference that is focusing this years content on how clinical, economic and regulatory considerations will Impact Clinical Practice, says course chairman Ron Waksman, MD. The conference takes place Feb. 21-23 in Washington, D.C.

As cardiologists have done in the past with new technologies, they will have to find ways to use CT and MRI complementarily, rather than in a competitive manner.

Cardiologists and cardiovascular staff at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., pride themselves for providing the best care in the area. But it took the process associated with gaining Chest Pain Center accreditation for them to realize just how good they are.

Is it February already? It seems like only yesterday that hospital executives and cardiovascular professionals were bracing for the dramatic reimbursement cuts scheduled for 2010. Its still early to gauge their effects, but word on the street is that everyone is pretty much still in shock.