Seth, absolutely excellent review of what we need to be doing to help preserve our profession. It was an eye opener!

Melissa 

Seth,

I very much appreciate your comments about advocacy on heart.org. As outgoing chair of the ACCPAC I want to reinforce the fact that we have only ourselves to blame if we do not stand up now. It has been gratifying to watch the ACCPAC grow over the last several years but we receive contributions from less than 7 % of cardiologists and year after year it seems to be the same people doing the lifting for the profession. Members of Congress are amazed at our appearance of apathy when it comes to advocating for our profession and our practices. I walked around the ACC10 and saw resignation and heard anger directed to Washington and to the ACC from those who did little to participate. Yes as a private practice cardiologist I am discouraged but I realize that if we opened ACC email alerts and read then instead of mass deleting them, filled out surveys and did them carefully, paid more attention to practice expense issues and became engaged as a whole in college advocacy maybe our plight would be less bleak. If we all left our practices for 2 days in september and went to DC and attended the ACC Legislative conference and became engaged just maybe congress and the administration would "get it". Instead we concentrate on protecting ourselves temporarily by selling out and integrating... at best a 3 year fix. I applaud your comments a bit late but not too late. It is time to get engaged, help the ACC help the profession. This is not just a call to arms for those in private practice either. Its a call to the profession because what happens to private practice cardiology today will happen to academic cardiologists and hospital employed cardiologists tomorrow. Join the PAC, ask the PAC to support a candidate for congress and hand a PAC check to him or her. Then call that elected MOC and visit them and discuss whats happening to our profession..Thats how its done. It is not rocket science  Its not even hemodynamics its advocacy..Jack Lewin said it succinctly when he said "If we don't have a seat at the table we will be on the menu". We can no longer wait for others to advocate for us and be angry when we fail.

Too many cardiologists wait until bad things happen and then seek redress.  Avoiding problems is much more efficient.

Cardiologists have the opporunty to seek appropriate reimbursement for the new cath codes now by filling work surveys.  We still don't have enough responses especially for the congeital and add-on catheterization work surveys (surveys 4,5, & 6).

Yes the surveys are onerous and difficult - but it is a standard methogology that we can't change and which all specialties use.

Surveys may be found at:  http://www.scai.org/Advocacy/Detail.aspx?cid=0e238fca-299c-46a4-a815-3927f0d82d2d 

We need to cut off survey responses ASAP so we can beging analysis of the data.  Codes and fees will change in 2011.  Please be part of the solution.  Going to Congress is not the way to solve this potential problem.

Wayne Powell

SCAI Staff

Gentlemen,

Despite the fact that I am privvy to lots of late breaking clinical trials and attend multiple meetings every year, I'm fairly isoloated at times from the political process.  When I listened to Seth's videoblog, that is the first I'd EVER heard of a work survey.  Would have been glad to have filled it out already, but I'm willing to tell you that the problem is not as much one of the apathy as it is lack of communication.  I'm a full time invasive cardiologist and I've NOT even heard either of my partners speak of it.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Melissa