In a recent Leadership Page published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Kim Allan Williams Sr., MD, FACC, president of the ACC, along with Paul N. Casale, MD, MPH, FACC, a member of the ACC Board of Trustees, and William J. Oetgen, MD, MBA, FACC, executive vice president of Science, Education and Quality for the ACC, discuss the Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), which was signed into law on April 16, and is the result of more than a decade of collaboration between medical societies to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula. They examine ways in which the College, particularly through the NCDR, will prepare members for MACRA. “The time is now for all ACC members to be certain that they are participants in at least one of the NCDR registry programs and to become familiar with their NCDR data,” they write. Read more. A MACRA issue brief is also available on ACC.org. The 2016 Cardiovascular Summit: Solutions for Thriving in a Time of Change, Feb. 18 – 20 in Las Vegas, NV, will provide an important forum for continued discussions on MACRA and new payment models. Register on ACC.org

ACC is leading the way in survival skills for its members!  The Cardiovascular Summit is designed to allow you to delve into topics and issues no other meeting will address! Bring your team – physicians, young leaders, practice administrators, service line managers and executives – to network with over 400 colleagues and fellow ACC members.  

The Summit is the best place to get your questions answered on topics including: 

• The “Doc Fix” Bill – A Deep Dive into How MACRA (Medicare Reform Law and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015) Will Affect Your Practice 
• Special mini-intensive on Alternative Payment Models
• Out with SGR, in with MIPS – What You Need to Know   
• Bundled Payments – What’s Happening Out There and Will We All Be Participating in 2 Years?
• EHR Tips from the Pros – Happier Providers, Better Data!
• Case Studies of Success
• Smarter Spending – Appropriate Use Leading to Cost Efficiency
• Care Redesign – Silo Smashing Required
• Team Based Success Stories

PLUS, two optional Thursday morning pre-conference workshops:

• The Basics of Cardiovascular Clinical Business Intelligence
• Strategic Planning Boot Camp – Building a Strategic Plan for the Value Transformation

The Summit provides the strategies and skills you need to achieve operational excellence and financial success while improving high-quality, patient centered, cost efficient care with sessions covering the:

• National Drivers of Health Care Reform                
• Business of Medicine
• Operational Excellence and Leadership
• Quality and Efficiency 

Register today to attend the course developed just for you!

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS), 209,000 eligible professionals will be subject to penalties in 2016 under the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program (Meaningful Use) for failing to demonstrate meaningful use. To avoid the penalties, eligible professionals must demonstrate meaningful use in either the Medicare EHR Incentive Program or the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. The Agency recently released a fact sheet for eligible professionals on the Meaningful Use program with more information on the 2016 payment adjustment.

The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for HHS recently released guidance clarifying patients' rights to their health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). OCR is expected to issue additional guidance to better explain HIPAA requirements to patients and clinicians in the near future. This particular guidance clarifies which records patients and their personal representatives have a right to access; the manner and form in which patients can request access to their records; the form, format and manner of access that clinicians, medical practices and hospitals can use to provide access to requested records; grounds for denying patients access to their records; and the interaction between HIPAA and state laws with respect to individuals' right to access their records. Visit OCR's website for additional information on HIPAA.