Dear Colleague,

The Ohio Chapter's 22nd Annual Meeting is coming up on October 13, at the Conference Center at NorthPointe, just north of Columbus, Ohio. We are very excited about this year's meeting, which will feature the inaugural Richard P. Lewis Memorial Lecture. It is an honor to have Patrick T. O'Gara, MD, FACC, present this year's lecture, which will focus on Mitral Regurgitation. The Richard P. Lewis Memorial Lecture will be an annual event that commemorates Dr. Lewis' contributions to cardiac education locally and nationally. In addition, this year's Annual Meeting will feature a great range of expert speakers and topics, including several "old school" presentations covering physical diagnosis and EKG interpretation -- topics that all cardiologists should enjoy and learn from. Fellows-in-training (FITs) will have a special session on Next Steps in a Cardiology Career as well as a poster competition. Please encourage FITs to attend --  if you are recruiting a cardiologist, this is a great opportunity to meet trainees from across the state. Registration information is available here or at www.ohioacc.org. 

Ohio ACC has been very active this past month in several important areas including advocacy, engagement with other groups and education.  Here are a couple of areas that may be of interest to you:

Mended Hearts

Mended Hearts is looking for physicians, allied professionals, and patients to increase outreach to our patients with cardiac problems. Mended Hearts is a group of patient-led volunteers that has over 300 local chapters nationwide offering peer-to-peer support for patients with heart issues and their families. While additional involvement is sought throughout the state, areas of particular need include Toledo, Findlay and Marion.  Please contact Jeff Davidson, President & Accredited Visitor, Mended Hearts of Central Ohio, 614-580-1561

www.mendedheartscentralohio.org, jadavidson@columbus.rr.com if you can help or know someone who is interested in serving.

Mended Hearts is hosting a regional conference in Columbus this July 21st. They would love to see you there. 

PATCH

Recently the Ohio Chapter-ACC submitted an application to become one of five pilot states for the Provider Action for Treating Congenital Hearts (PATCH) Program that is intended to increase awareness of adults with congenital heart disease.  The program is "designed for general cardiologists to provide ACHD educational programming and tools, and to foster collaboration with ACHD specialists in compliance with ACC/AHA 2008 Guidelines for the Management of Adults With Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).  Specifically, PATCH will promote networking opportunities between ACHD specialists and general cardiologists; create and distribute educational resources on CHD; and will increase awareness among healthcare providers of resources available on CHD."  Curt Daniels, MD, FACC, Nationwide Children's in Columbus; Richard Krasuski, MD, FACC, Cleveland Clinic; Timothy Hoffman, MD, FACC, Nationwide Children's; Michael Deucher, M.D., FACC, Cardiovascular Medicine Associates, Inc.; and Gwen Goldfarb, our Ohio-ACC executive, were very helpful in the application process.  Thanks!

Sincerely,

Christopher J. Cooper MD, FACC

President, Ohio Chapter of the ACC

Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award Nominations are now in progress through July 16, 2012. The Douglas P. Zipes Distinguished Young Scientist Award recognizes an early-career scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of cardiovascular disease and who has amassed an impressive body of scientific research in either the clinical or basic domain.  Please visit www.CardioSource.org/DistinguishedAwards to read a full description of each category and find out more about the application process. 

Thanks to the hard work of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) over the past year and a half, McKesson Health Solutions has agreed to reverse its decision to implement claims coding edits that deny separate payment for echocardiogram interpretations when performed on the same date of service as an inpatient evaluation and management (E/M) visit. These edits, which are contained in software marketed by McKesson, have been adopted by a number of private payers including Aetna, Horizon BCBS of New Jersey, BCBS of Illinois, and others.

Following a series of letters and conversations between ACC, ASE and McKesson, the company has agreed to remove edits, recognizing that the problems associated with implementing the changes outweigh the benefits. McKesson anticipates that the complete removal of these edits for each insurer may take anywhere from 3 to 7 months due to necessary software updates.  In the coming days, however, McKesson will begin communicating this change to its insurer clients and will be providing an open letter that ACC and ASE members can use in the interim when communicating with insurers. The ACC and ASE continue to recommend that cardiovascular professionals continue to bill these procedures with the most appropriate modifier. Stay tuned to www.CardioSource.org and The ACC Advocate to keep up on the latest developments.

Dr. John Rumsfeld presented a special webinar to the ACC Board of Governors entitled entitled "NCDR: An Overview from Past to Present." It received excellent reviews and you will want to make time to listen to this recorded version.

Interested in applying for an ACC Distinguished Award?

Find out the details.