A Medicare advisory panel recommended changes to Congress that included initiatives to reduce payment differences between hospital outpatient and physician office payment rates. One option targeted cardiac imaging services for a projected annual savings of $500 million.

Eugene Sherman, MD, chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Advocacy Steering Committee and Political Action Committee, shares his experience meeting with other cardiovascular societies to make a case to members of Congress to eliminate the Sustainable Growth Rate formula and boost healthcare quality in a blog post.

ATLANTA—Have healthcare reform and the shift from volume-based to value-based compensation had an impact on cardiovascular practices? A report from MedAxiom released at the Cardiovascular Service Line Symposium in Atlanta suggests they have.

In a sign of the times, almost 70 percent of physician groups reported they are employed or are in the process of being employed by a hospital. That is one of the many findings presented in the soon-to-be released 2013 MedAxiom Provider Compensation & Production Survey.

Two novel approaches for preventing stroke in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation proved more cost-effective than warfarin in an economic evaluation published online May 22 in Circulation, with percutaneous left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion beating out dabigatran for value.

The federal government will reduce rates paid to physicians and hospitals treating patients with cardiovascular diseases and other serious illnesses in an effort to stem the tide in cost overruns in its Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP).

For more than a decade, the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula has remained a hot topic of discussion across the healthcare spectrum. While Congress and health care experts alike agree that the SGR needs to be repealed and the Medicare payment systems needs to shift from volume to value, the route to reform is uncertain.

The proposed rule for inpatient hospital care, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in late April, includes many issues of note for cardiovascular medicine.