President's Message
Edward T.A. Fry, MD, FACC | 
Colleagues,
There has been a flurry of activity recently. The SGR Repeal passed in late April, and ACC President Kim Allan Williams, Sr., MD, FACC, represented the College at the White House where President Barack Obama hosted a reception to celebrate passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. Williams attended the Rose Garden ceremony along with Democrat and Republican Committee staff, House Speaker John Boehner, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Matthew Burwell.
JAMA published a piece by Robert Steinbrook, MD, entitled The Repeal of Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate for Physician Payment. As Dr. Steinbrook opines, "The repeal of the SGR is the carrot; the far-reaching payment reforms that the legislation facilitates are the stick." Payment reform will continue to be with us for the foreseeable future. Moving forward, the next important step will be identifying the quality and value metrics to be used for incentive payments.
Urgent MOC Message
In other news, the ACC leadership has put together an important message regarding the ACC's approach to the ABIM's MOC program. I would urge you to read the message in its entirety here. Following are the high points of this message:
"We respect the intelligence of our members in analyzing the best path for continuing education/certification individually and realize that it may not be the same for each of us; we are not wedded to one solution for all.
An ACC Task Force led by ACC Immediate Past President Patrick T. O'Gara, MD, MACC, is focused on continuing to provide input to ABIM to see if proposed temporary changes become permanent and to see if their processes can further improve to the extent that they are helpful and acceptable to members.
A second ACC Task Force led by ACC President-Elect Richard Chazal, MD, FACC, is aggressively exploring whether an alternative board should/could be developed by ACC for our members. Potential possibilities could include: new board(s); working with already established alternate boards and/or other organizations; working within or without ABMS framework; and other solutions. While working as rapidly as possible, we want to be cautious, realizing the great complexity of the situation."
Take home message: ACC has been effective in initiating positive change to the process of re-certification and MOC. The process of developing a more effective, more efficient, less intrusive, and less expensive sytem that will be recognized by the public, payers, regulators, and health systems will be complex and by necessity deliberate. There is a lot at stake here. Although we are all impatient for a solution, it will take time, energy, and resources from the College and its members to get it right.
Again, please take a look at the message in its entirety here.
Feel free to contact me at fry5@comcast.net.
Kind regards,
Edward T.A. Fry, MD, FACC
President
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Off to a Good Start
Raymond E. Dusman, MD, FACC | 
I would like to thank my fellow Indiana-ACC colleagues for the privilege of serving as Governor Elect, my term having begun in March at the national meeting. I had the opportunity to attend an orientation of the Board of Governors and I must say, I am quite impressed with the executive and physician leadership of the College. The enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism expressed in service to our membership is outstanding. This year will be spent working closely with Dr. Ed Fry as he completes his last year as Governor, and I am grateful for that opportunity.
As you may conclude from your own practice experience or from ACC communications, there are many professional challenges facing all of us. There are opportunities where member guidance, influence and support will be critical. I think that you will see more attention turned towards guiding the right quality discussion including the appropriate outcome metrics, given the shift of legislative focus from resolving SGR to delivering value to our patients. Only with engagement from members in guiding our professional society can we ensure a voice in the right solutions and direction -- and keeping the patient at the center.
I look forward to meeting new colleagues throughout the state and reconnecting with others over the next few years.
Again, thank you.
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| In Memoriam: Borys Surawicz, MD, MACC | 
Borys Surawicz, MD, MACC, a pioneer in electrocardiography and a significant contributor to the cardiovascular academic community, has passed away.
Originally a native of Moscow, Russia, Surawicz trained in Europe from 1939 - 1949 before serving as a medical officer of public health in Holmestrand, Norway (1949 - 1950). One year later, he was named chief of medicine for the Bogenhausen Hospital in Munich, Germany.
Dr. Surawicz began his training in the U.S. with an internship at the DeGoesbriand Memorial Hospital in Burlington, VT, followed by two fellowships at the Philadelphia General Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, before gaining his U.S. citizenship in 1956.
He served as president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) from 1979 - 1980, and received many awards for his scientific and clinical accomplishments. He was honored with the Master Teacher Award by the ACC in 1971 and 1974, and held faculty positions at multiple leading academic institutions, including the University of Kentucky, where he was Chairman of the Department of Cardiology and later named professor emeritus. He was also named professor emeritus at the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1987, when he joined the Nasser, Smith, and Pinkerton Cardiology Group at St. Vincent, where he remained in active practice until his retirement in 2006.
His passion for academia shone throughout his involvement in the ACC. In 1978, when the Federated Council for Internal Medicine urged the modification and limitation of subspecialty training positions, Dr. Surawicz fought for recognition of the importance of subspecialties, saying, "The public can best be served under an educational system which maximizes the freedom of individuals to choose and develop their career interests and opportunities...This applies to both the selection of medicine as a career and the choice in specialty."
Dr. Surawicz was a true innovator. His scientific contributions laid the ground work for many clinical diagnostic tests and therapies that are common place today; including EKG interpretation, electrophyiology testing, cardiac pacing, and arrhythmia management.
His career was never ending. After completing his time as Department Chair at University of Kentucky and his presidency of ACC, he smoothly transitioned to the next phase of his career bringing academics, with a small "a" to a busy, large private practice. Thus, demonstrating that research, teaching, innovation, and professional leadership can flourish anywhere there is the right culture, the right people, and a thirst for intellectual curiosity. His personal story of survival, persistence, humility, thoughtfulness, and compassion complemented his intelligence, wisdom, and scientific contributions, which, taken together, shaped the personal and professional lives of several generations of students and colleagues alike throughout the world of cardiovascular medicine.
His devotion to his colleagues, his students and his field has been tremendous, and as a result, he has been honored in many capacities. He is the namesake of the Borys Surawicz, MD Imaging Center at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. He was celebrated as a National Association for Sport and Physical Education Distinguished Scientist in 1992, he was given the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society Recognition Award in 2006, and he has received honorary membership into several international medical organizations.
He will be fondly remembered and greatly missed by all who knew and worked with him.
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| Cardiovascular Health and Million Hearts | |
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Million Hearts® initiative to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. The initiative focuses on improving the ABCS of cardiac risk reduction (Aspirin therapy when appropriate, Blood pressure control, Cholesterol management, and Smoking screening and cessation) for all Americans, including racial and ethnic minorities, and supports the National Prevention Strategy.
These measures will be publicly reported on the Physician Compare Web site beginning in late 2015. Qsource, part of the atom Alliance, is under contract with Medicare to work collaboratively with physicians to improve cardiac health throughout our region. Providers who participate with the atom Alliance will benefit from virtual Learning and Action Networks, assistance with analysis of data and performance improvement activities, Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), and value-based payment modifier. For additional information about these free services, please contact Deb Garrison-Downey at 317-646-0201 or via email at ddowney@qsource.org.
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| Sunshine Returns |
Physicians and teaching hospitals can now review reports of the payments they received from industry in 2014 before the reports are made public. Under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Open Payments Program), payments to physicians and teaching hospitals must be reported by manufacturers and distributors of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved products prescribed to patients and paid for by one of the federal health care programs. Physicians and teaching hospitals have 45 days to preview and dispute information contained within the reports. After the close of the 45-day period, there is an additional 15-day period that physicians and teaching hospitals can use to continue to work with industry to resolve disputes.
To preview your report, you must first create an account through the CMS Enterprise Portal , a system designed to verify your identity. You must then register specifically with the Open Payments System. If you registered previously, your account should still be active; however, you should be prepared to reset your password because CMS requires that passwords be reset every 60 days.
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IHCP adding coverage for transcatheter aortic valve replacement/implantation service
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Effective May 1, 2015, the Indiana Health Coverage Programs (IHCP) will add transcatheter aortic valve replacement/transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVR/TAVI) as a covered service. Coverage applies to dates of service (DOS) on or after May 1, 2015. The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®1) codes in Table 1 will be covered for all IHCP programs, subject to limitations established for certain benefit packages. The following reimbursement information applies.
Prior Authorization (PA): None required.
Billing Guidance: Standard billing guidelines apply. See Chapter 8 of the IHCP Provider Manual for billing procedures.
These changes will be reflected in the next monthly updates to the provider Fee Schedule at indianamedicaid.com.
Reimbursement, PA, and billing information apply to services delivered under the fee-for-service (FFS) delivery system. Individual managed care entities (MCEs) establish and publish reimbursement, PA, and billing criteria within the risk-based managed care (RBMC) delivery system. Questions about RBMC reimbursement information should be directed to the MCE with which the member is enrolled.
Find out more.
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| Coding Corner |
Will your practice be ready for the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 on Oct. 1?Review a recent ACC webinar to prepare for the new code set and learn how to develop practice and business contingency plans.
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