The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) launched a joint online venue Sept. 26 that will allow healthcare professionals to share best practices in care delivery and payment reform. Called the Community on Payment Innovations, the website is designed to bring the cardiovascular community together with health policy experts, health economists, government agencies and payors to create innovative approaches to high-quality and affordable patient care that offer alternatives to the traditional pay-for-service model.

At Midwest Heart Specialists, implementing quality improvement and investing in EHRs go hand in hand. Its EHR system has allowed Midwest Heart to design and meet internal benchmarks and participate in quality-focused federal incentive programs that offset some of the costs of EHRs. Most importantly, EHRs have helped Midwest Heart caregivers effectively serve patients.

Despite the fact that general medical practice operating costs have skyrocketed, these multispecialty practices (not owned by hospitals) slashed general operating expenditures 2.2 percent in 2010, according to a cost survey released Sept. 20 by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).

This years 16th annual American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) scientific session, which took place last week in Denver, highlighted where the future of nuclear cardiology is headed, and what steps are necessary to make it flourish. While some presentations focused on how nuclear cardiology can stay afloat during the ambiguous era of healthcare reform, others focused on the need to eliminate inappropriate testing as a means to reduce radiation exposure, often the Achilles heel of imaging exams. 

Telestroke is a cost-effective strategy for treating ischemic stroke patients in rural hospitals that lack stroke expertise, according to a study published Sept. 14 in Neurology. While there are significant upfront costs in developing the two-way audiovisual technology, the lifetime savings of improved stroke care outweigh the initial costs, the study found.

A telehealth tool may help manage care and cut expenses in the treatment for chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries, according to a recent study that looked at two clinics in the Northwest that were exposed to the intervention.

  Thoracic-cardiovascular surgeons are more than twice as likely to face a malpractice claim annually than physicians as a whole, according to a study in the Aug. 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. For cardiologists, the likelihood was slightly higher than the 7.4 percent all-physician annual figure.

Healthcare providers are going to have to learn how to play nicely with each other.  As Medicare cuts continue, health systems, hospitals and individual physician practices are going to have to learn to share patient care, in order to qualify for the shared payment model that will likely emerge soon.