SCAI was one of two only cardiology organizations invited to meetings on Capitol Hill to discuss a draft proposal to replace the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. These meetings were the latest in a series of policymaking efforts in which SCAI has played a role, says SCAI’s lead lobbyist, Wayne Powell.

SCAI has suggested improvements to two draft assessments by the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF) on the revascularization of diabetics with multi-vessel disease (MVD) and IABPs for the treatment of diabetic shock.

In its final advocacy efforts of 2012, SCAI submitted harsh comments to CMS regarding the 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule, cautioning CMS about the potential unintended consequences resulting from the continued erosion of values for interventional cardiology procedures.

On Sunday an Alliance of Specialty Medicine OpEd appeared in Roll Call, suggesting that Congress and the President should look elsewhere for federal spending cuts in Fiscal Cliff discussions.

Yesterday the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule announcing payment rates for the services we and other doctors provide to Medicare beneficiaries. In the bullets below, we discuss several of the key decisions relevant to the practice of Interventional Cardiology, but the over-riding message we wish to share with you, SCAI’s members, is this: In an overt effort to transfer funds from the payment of specialty procedures to primary care, CMS has targeted established procedures for bundling and revaluation, with the assumption that bundled services include economies and support lower values. CMS has increasingly ignored the coding and valuation recommendations developed through the AMA’s CPT and RUC processes. Now, in an unprecedented move, CMS is rejecting many of the new codes developed for PCI and announcing 19%-28% reductions in the base codes for stenting procedures. We are closely examining the calculations CMS made to ensure no errors were introduced and that related practice expense and malpractice values were captured with the bundled codes.