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Announcing!
The Indiana Chapter-ACC Annual Meeting
When: Friday, November 19, 2004
Where: NCAA Hall of Fame, Indianapolis
Cocktail Reception at 6:30 p.m., Dinner Meeting at 7:30
p.m.
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ACC
Cardiology Careers
The Online Job Bank of the Indiana Chapter of the ACC
We know
looking for the perfect candidate-or the perfect job-can
be a full-time job itself. That's why the American
College of Cardiology created ACC Cardiology Careers.
With more than 30,000 members, the ACC offers the
broadest exposure for employers' job postings. And with
more than 600 job postings a month, it's the most
convenient, powerful way to plan the next step in your
career. To begin your search today, go www.inacc.org/jobs.htm.
Your dream job--or your dream employee--could be just a
click away.
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Dr.
Walsh's column continued from above
National
ACC Staff Visit Indiana
I had the pleasure of hosting two members of
the National ACC staff here in Indiana this past week. The
focus of their visit was to better identify what ACC
members want out of the organization. They met with
several cardiolologists and fellows- in-training and
solicited opinions about the Annual Scientific Sessions,
Cardiosource and many other ACC initiatives and
activities. More of these "hands-on"
visits are planned for the future. If there are issues
that you would like me to raise with the national staff
in the interim, please let me know. You can always
contact me at 317.583.6510 or mwalsh@thecaregroup.com.
Cardiac
Care Associates
You may be aware that a new category of membership has
been created in the ACC. The Cardiac Care Associate
(CCA) is a non-physician (nurse, NP, CNS, PA) who is
sponsored in his or her membership by an FACC. The
dues are nominal ($100 + $25 processing fee), and
CCAs have access to substantial and significant
membership benefits, including:
*
Electronic access to trusted ACC publications, including
the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and
Current Journal Review;
* Access
to Cardiosource.com for comprehensive cardiovascular
information on line;
* Web
updates of ACC/AHA guidelines;
* Reduced
fees to attend the most important CME events in
cardiovascular medicine, including the Annual Scientific
Sessions;
We
have many new CCAs here in Indiana, and we would welcome
more! Please make sure that the members of the
cardiovascular care team at your practice or institution
are aware of their option to join the ACC and offer to
write a letter of sponsorship. Please go
here to apply today.
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Dr.
Mirro's column continued from above
I
have been pleased to have spent the last three years
participating as your president and will continue to
assist Dr. Walsh in her efforts to move the Indiana-ACC
forward. I have accepted a position on the Board of
Trustees of ACC and, along with Dr. Doug Zipes, will
represent your interests.
Advocacy
This past year has been active both at the federal and
state levesl. Federally, as all of you are aware,
the ACC was instrumental in assisting the passage of the
new Medicare law, which halted the reduction in our
Medicare fees. At the state level there was
legislative activity focused on physician ownership of
ambulatory surgical centers as well as specialty
hospitals. This has subsequently been established
a state study commission, and we will continue to
monitor this closely. I would urge all of you to
support the ACC Political Action Committee (with your
contributions) in order to assist the ACC in achieving
the legislative goals necessary to ensure the future of
our profession. (For more information on the PAC,
contact Dana Langley Birdsong at 301-493-2374 or dbirdson@acc.org.)
Quality
Initiatives
I had the opportunity to attend a
Medical Directors Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, to
discuss "pay for quality." A number of
medical directors of major health plans including
Anthem, Oxford, Well Point, Aetna, and Cigna were
present. We discussed the importance of developing
a process to ensure quality care. Issues such as
facility credentialing, qualifications of physicians,
qualifications of imaging technicians, and appropriate
utilization were discussed. As many of you are aware CMS
as well as commercial payers are very concerned about
the steep escalation in cardiovascular imaging services
provided without guidelines on appropriateness and
assurances on technical and professional quality.
The ACC
discussed the importance of the ACC Practice Guidelines
in providing quality measurement indicators that could
be followed for congestive heart failure, coronary
artery disease, and atrial fibrillation. Many of
the plans were quite interested in how technology could
be used to achieve these goals. It was pointed out
that the physicians really do not have the financial
resources to implement the technology necessary for
electronic medical records and the additional decision
of support software but that if the health plans could
assist them, this would certainly accelerate adoption of
technology in the improvement of tracking the process of
care delivery.
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Special
thanks to Pfizer for its support of the Indiana-ACC
Chapter Night Reception and Dinner held in New Orleans
at the ACC Scientific Session.
www.inacc.org |
