The term in economics is hyperbolic discounting, the inability to act today on what affects the seemingly distant future. You can apply it to some patients and lawmakers.

The House voted to eliminate the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula that for years has threatened to cut physician payment from Medicare. Cardiovascular societies praised the move and encouraged the Senate to follow suit.

The market for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) devices is expected to burgeon through 2020, far outpacing surgical valves, one market report projected.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) programs are picking up steam in the U.S. And they can be fiscal as well as clinical successes, but it requires physicians and administrators working together to maximize efficiencies.

The letter is short and the list is long. Almost all of the major cardiovascular and imaging societies banded together with approximately 700 medical associations to implore Congress to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.

Continuing with warfarin may be significantly more cost-effective than switching to heparin during pacemaker or defibrillator surgery.

A change in federal reimbursement for peripheral vascular interventions shifted the proportion of treatments away from inpatient to generally less expensive outpatient settings. But it may not have saved Medicare money, according to a study.

Hospitals participating in phase two of a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) bundled payment model apparently focus only on those conditions that they treat most frequently. According to research published in the March issue of Health Affairs, this means that institutions are enrolled, at most, in two or three conditions out of the possible 48.