May 2010

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common form of arrhythmia, and there are a plethora of new devices and drugs to treat this burgeoning condition, along with its associated stroke risk. Yet, how these therapies will manifest within clinical practice has yet to be seen.

The U.S. healthcare reform law makes significant headway in expanding access to care for millions of uninsured Americans. It extends Medicaid qualifications, increases the age limit for young adults on family plans and eliminates pre-existing condition exclusions for insurance. The legislation also addresses congenital heart disease, chronic disease management, prevention and wellness, as well as funding for Medicare and Medicaid pilot programs.

Secure patient portals offer physicians and practices the opportunity to conduct virtual patient visits, but these electronic consults are not always reimbursed. Many who have ventured into this frontier say they look for softer ROIs such as patient satisfaction and practice efficiency.

Advanced technologies and improved patient selection have increased the rates of successful percutaneous revascularization of chronic total occlusions (CTOs). The biggest hurdle to offering more patients the option of PCI for CTOs is now more a matter of physician education, rather than of technique or technology.

A process called rapid prototyping allows interventionalists to produce 3D models of patients hearts to better facilitate pre-procedural planning for catheter-based structural heart interventions.

Though clinical indications and insurance coverage of ICDs are expanding, researchers have only recently begun exploring the correlation between hospital and operator characteristics with procedural success.

Reverberations still are being felt from the enormous amount of scientific and educational material presented and discussed at ACC.10 in Atlanta in March. And this month, were readying for two more meetings: the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) and the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS).

Cardiology practices have always faced fairly distinctive coding and billing challenges. Rapidly declining reimbursement for key servicesincluding nuclear medicine, cath labs and consultationsnow makes it imperative for cardiology practices to capture and collect every legitimate charge.

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