New from National Health Care Reform Front and Center Washington remains abuzz with talk of health care reform. Congress is expected to unveil its overarching proposals in early June. To date, ACC leaders think there is too much talk about cost-cutting and not enough talk about how to intelligently reform the system to improve quality and bring down costs. To this end, the ACC held a Legislative Fly-In recently involving about 15 physician leaders from around the country who blitzed the Capitol to discuss specific ways we can do both. You are strongly encouraged to build on these efforts by calling, emailing or visiting (in-District) your members of Congress during June's Congressional recess.Let them hear firsthand about the need for fundamental payment reform and how the current payment environment has affected your ability to run a practice and provide all patients access to the care they need and deserve. More details, including specific talking points, can be found by calling ACC's toll-free grassroots hotline (800-210-7193) or at www.acc.org/can. President Obama's 2010 budget also puts health care reform front and center. The budget recommends reforming the physician payment system, reducing hospital re-admissions and improving care coordination. In a positive step long-advocated by your ACC, the Administration proposes retrospectively removing Part B drug spending from the calculation of physician services spending. This drops the cost of replacing the sustainable growth rate formula by an estimated $87 billion. The budget also includes more problematic provisions dealing with prior authorization for imaging and addressing physician ownership in specialty hospitals. The ACC is working with lawmakers and the administration to ensure final budget provisions protect your ability to provide quality care to all patients. For more information on the budget and other health care reform proposals go to: qualityfirst.acc.org. Lowered Liability Risk When it comes to reducing your liability risk, you won't believe what your ACC is doing to help. We are scouring the country to bring you a package of the most comprehensive strategies to help you manage the liability risk in your practice. In fact, this week ACC leaders looked at an online communication system that encourages patients to take an active role in their care by learning about their health. For those practices and hospitals that use the system with a total patient population of 1.1 million, there was not one successful malpractice claim. Stay tuned for additional information and the roll-out of our upcoming risk management education program. EHR Purchase Decision Aid If you are in the market for an EHR, we're here to help. Your ACC recognizes that in the crowded health IT arena it can get confusing and has developed an EHR toolkit designed to help you make the best decision for your individual practice. The toolkit is chock full of information about selecting an EHR, negotiating contracts, understanding EHR features and/or learning more about legislative requirements. Visit www.acc.org/healthit to access the toolkit and other important health IT information. How is the Echo CPT 93306 Code Affecting You Take this brief ACC coding survey to help us better understand the problems surrounding the new echocardiography CPT 93306 code. Results of the survey will help us develop a sample letter that you can use with private payers. You should be familiar with a practice's current contracts with insurance companies, and have an understanding of the scope of Medicare changes this year. The survey will ask the impact of 93306 (global) and 93306-26 (professional component). To complete the survey, click here. The survey will close on Friday, June 5. If you have questions or problems, please contact Henry McCants at hmccants@acc.org. $84 a month X 1,000 = $1 Million to Protect and Enhance the Cardiology Profession The ACC PAC needs your help with its "$1,000 from 1,000" campaign. We need 1,000 ACC members to step up and contribute $1,000 to the PAC's efforts to ensure Cardiology has a seat at the table during important health care debates. That's only $84 a month. Currently only two members of our 187 physicians in the NV-ACC have contributed $1,000. To see where Nevada stands and to learn more about the ACC PAC, go to: www.accpacweb.org.