This post was authored by Eugene Sherman, MD, FACC, chair of the ACC’s Advocacy Steering Committee and Political Action Committee.
This week I had the privilege of representing the ACC and its members on Capitol Hill, as part of a two-day “Fly-In” with several othe
r cardiovascular societies and their leadership. Leading our efforts was ACC Vice President Kim Allan Williams, MD, FACC. Other societies in attendance included the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), American Society of Echocardiography, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA).
Our goal was straightforward: provide key members of Congress with concrete recommendations regarding elimination of the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula and promote health care quality as several committees of the House and Senate are deliberating final versions of their plans. Key elements of our message:
The Sustainable Growth Rate must be repealed and replaced with a system that better reflects increases in physician and other health care professionals’ practice costs.
It is critical that our physicians and hospitals see a stabilized long-term plan for healthcare that will allow for proper long-term planning with our practices and hospitals.
Congress must support initiatives to develop measures and guidelines to assure appropriateness and quality of services provided to Medicare beneficiaries.
Congress must support the creation and operation of clinical data registries to provide timely feedback on performance and to ensure continuous quality improvement.
Congress must preserve the In-Office Ancillary Services Exception (IOASE).
Utilizing teams of physicians and staff, we visited with nearly 20 congressional offices and committee staffs. We provided them with a unified approach on how the success of our care of cardiovascular disease can be translated into a new paradigm for all of medicine and by all accounts our recommendations were well received. As Congress and other policymakers continue to discuss transitioning the current Medicare physician payment system away from a volume-based system, we made it clear that cardiovascular societies desire a value-driven system that better aligns payment with performance of evidence-based medicine coupled with higher value and more appropriate health care. In such an environment, the cardiology community has an opportunity to shape this new system by virtue of our proven leadership and success in the areas of continuous quality improvement, patient-centered care and practice excellence. If we don’t step up and take ownership, these efforts may be altered by others in ways that are less constructive and potentially harmful to patient access to quality cardiovascular care.
There are several things about this day that stand out for me. My colleague from Denver, David Fullerton, MD, FACC, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Colorado at Denver and president-elect of the STS, and I had lunch with Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO), the new chair of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) along with several medical societies joined us during lunch for an open discussion of the SGR. This was a unique opportunity and the group felt our message resonated with key Senate Finance Committee leadership. I learned that these Senators are interested in our thoughts on how we can achieve an improved health care delivery system. My other great lesson was how passionate our many partners in other cardiovascular societies are on these issues. We even had a sonographer from John Hopkins join and her messages about medical imaging were well received. I urge all of you to engage all elements of our cardiovascular community as we proceed with these efforts. We are clearly stronger when we work together.
My years at the College have taught me that the word “Advocacy” is often a loaded term – often conjuring images of sparring donkeys and elephants. However, I’d like to challenge us all to think about “Advocacy,” not in the polarizing political party sense, but as two-way communication with policymakers, regardless of political affiliation, about how we can best work together to ensure cardiovascular patients have access to the best and most appropriate care. This way of thinking was underscored during a briefing sponsored by ABC, HFSA and the American Society of Clinical Oncology held the morning of our Hill visits. The briefing focused on strategies for decreasing health disparities across the country and around the world. Williams shared examples of the vast disparities in health care he witnesses in Detroit and stressed the importance of prevention, while Gary H. Gibbons, MD, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, emphasized the roles research and other federal investments play in improving health care delivery. The take away message from this eye-opening briefing: It may take a village, but disparities can be overcome if professional organizations, physicians and patients band together … and ADVOCATE.
I look forward to hearing from our membership on how we can work together on advocacy issues. Please feel to voice your concerns on issues before the Advocacy Steering Committee or how ACCPAC can better serve you and your fellow members in the comment section below.
Hone your advocacy skills and join “Cardiology” on Capitol Hill this September! Registration for the ACC’s 2013 Legislative Conference is now open. A limited number of travel awards are available for Fellows in Training and Cardiovascular Care Team members.
Pictured: David Fullerton, MD, FACC, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Colorado at Denver and president-elect of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons; Senator Michael Bennett, D-Colorado; M. Eugene Sherman, MD, FACC, chair of the ACC’s Advocacy Steering Committee and Political Action Committee.