More than 120 medical societies have joined the AMA in a letter urging congressional leaders to enact long-term solutions to the systemic problems in the Medicare physician payment system and to address cuts that are going into effect in 2023.

Dozens of medical societies have signed a new letter urging Congress to stop upcoming Medicare payment cuts. “The Medicare payment system remains on an unsustainable path threatening beneficiaries’ access to physicians," they wrote. 

The biggest news from the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) 2022 meeting was positive late-breaking data on the phase 3 Aurora trial for the flurpiridaz (F-18) PET radiotracer agent.

With the elevation of cardiac CT to a 1A indication in the 2021 Chest Pain Guidelines, there has been a large amount of interest in starting coronary artery CT angiography (CCTA) programs. 

One of the largest private health insurers in the U.S. has gone from considering hybrid PET/CT for cardiac indications “experimental/investigational” to displaying willingness to pay for the modality. 

American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) delegates to the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates 2022 meeting Stephen Bloom, MD, and Nishant Shah, MD, explain a new AMA policy asking Congress to revise its clinician decision support mandate. 

The American Medical Association Board of Delegates approved a policy calling on payers to reimburse for the drug regadenoson and not to employ payment policies that push for cardiologists to change the drug they use for pharmacologic stress for one that is considered less safe.

Randall Thompson, MD, immediate past president of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, said the group had issues with the document's elevation of cardiac CT and FFR-CT.