On January 1, 2022, Medicare faces looming cuts that can impact patient access to Medicare services. ASE appreciates the action Congress took in adopting the Consolidated Appropriations Act, that delayed the budget neutrality cuts resulting from changes to the codes for office and outpatient evaluation and management services. However, this cut, and several others, are due to be implemented. Please contact your member of Congress and ask them to prevent:

• The congressionally enacted 3.75% temporary increase in the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) conversion factor to avoid pay cuts associated with budget neutrality adjustments tied to CY2021 PFS policy changes. This results in a pending -3.75% cut across the board to all PFS payments.
• Expiration of the current reprieve from the -2% sequester stemming from the Budget Control Act of 2011.
• Imposition of a -4% statutory pay-as-you-go 9(PAYGO) sequester resulting from passage of the American Rescue Plan Act.

These reimbursement decreases come at one of the most financially uncertain times within the Medicare payment history. These steep cuts could have serious financial consequences for physicians who are already under financial distress due to the sustained COVID-19 pandemic.

Please take a minute to email your Member of Congress and urge them to prevent these devastating cuts to echocardiography!

Susan Mayer, MD, FASE
Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute
ASE’s Advocacy Chair and CPT Alternate Advisor

Are you interested in volunteering for ASE? The Society depends on its members to get involved and advance our mission. Our volunteers help set standards, develop products, create courses, direct subspecialty activities, advocate for echo on the federal and state levels, and so much more. If you are a new volunteer interested in serving on an ASE committee or a member currently serving on a committee and would like to continue to serve, learn more here and complete the Committee Interest Application & Conflict of Interest/Disclosure Agreement.

The application process will remain open through January 4, 2022. The term of service for new appointments will be July 2022 – June 2023.

Register today for Echo Florida Virtual Experience, being presented live this weekend October 30 – 31, 2021. The expert faculty will be joining to answer your questions. Created by Course Director, Linda D. Gillam, MD, FASE, and Co-Director, Matt Umland, ACS, RDCS, FASE, highlights of the course include:

• Coronary artery disease including stress testing
• Valvular heart disease
• Interventional imaging
• Heart failure (systolic and diastolic) and cardiomyopathy
• Emerging technologies including contrast, 3D/4D echocardiography, and strain imaging
• Complex congenital heart disease
• and more!

The live sessions, including recordings of the Q&A sessions, and additional pre-recorded sessions will be available to you for unlimited on-demand viewing through the ASE Learning Hub starting November 15, 2021 until February 13, 2022. A total of 19.25 CME/MOC credits will be included.

Register today.

ASE is proud to share that its innovative clinical data registry, ImageGuideEcho^TM, has recently achieved several noteworthy milestones that directly impact a physicians’ ability to adhere to best care practices and standards within the field of echocardiography. This year alone, the ImageGuideEcho Registry has rapidly accelerated the amount of data contained in the Registry, announced a partnership with IAC to satisfy accreditation requirements for two QI measures, and introduced the Pediatric Module.

One benefit of the Registry is that data can be extracted directly from your institution’s echocardiography reporting platform without ongoing manual input. In this video, ASE Board Member and Registry Committee Co-Chair, Jordan Strom, MD, FASE, explains about the different Data Collection Methods and which can work best for your institution.

This professionally illustrated 16″ x 20″ poster is designed to help clinicians diagnose hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

The poster outlines the use of echocardiography in the assessment of HCM, including but not limited to:

• Evaluating LV systolic and diastolic function
• Establishing a presence and severity of LVOTO
• Evaluating the degree and direction of mitral regurgitation
• Intrinsic structure of the mitral valve and papillary muscle
• Evaluating the LV apical aneurysm 

This valuable tool was authored by Allison Hays, MD, FASE, and Karan Kapoor, MD, in collaboration with Judy W. Hung, MD, FASE, Dermot Phelan, MD, PhD, FASE, and David H. Wiener, MD, FASE.

On January 1, 2022, Medicare faces looming cuts that can impact patient access to Medicare services. ASE appreciates the action Congress took in adopting the Consolidated Appropriations Act, that delayed the budget neutrality cuts resulting from changes to the codes for office and outpatient evaluation and management services. However, this cut, and several others, are due to be implemented. Please contact your member of Congress and ask them to prevent:

• The congressionally enacted 3.75% temporary increase in the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) conversion factor to avoid pay cuts associated with budget neutrality adjustments tied to CY2021 PFS policy changes. This results in a pending -3.75% cut across the board to all PFS payments.
• Expiration of the current reprieve from the -2% sequester stemming from the Budget Control Act of 2011.
• Imposition of a -4% statutory pay-as-you-go 9(PAYGO) sequester resulting from passage of the American Rescue Plan Act.
• Implementation of the clinical labor rates decrease for services for echocardiography in the proposed 2022 PFS practice expense (or at least delay it).

These reimbursement decreases come at one of the most financially uncertain times within the Medicare payment history. These steep cuts could have serious financial consequences for physicians who are already under financial distress due to the sustained COVID-19 pandemic.

Please take a minute to quickly email your member of Congress and urge them to prevent these devastating cuts to echocardiography! Use this link to easily contact them.

There is still time to register for Echo Florida Virtual Experience, presented live October 30 – 31, 2021, with the outstanding faculty joining to answer your questions. It is important to Course Director, Linda D. Gillam, MD, FASE, and Co-Director, Matt Umland, ACS, RDCS, FASE, that you have access to all of the original content that was planned for the in-person event, so the faculty will be recording all of their presentations. Those recordings, along with everything presented live including the Q&A sessions, will be available to you for unlimited on-demand viewing through the ASE Learning Hub starting November 15, 2021 until February 13, 2022. A total of 19.25 CME/MOC credits (pending approval) will be included.

Download the Program Agenda and Register Today!

Do not miss a special crossover episode between the Canadian Society of Echocardiography (CSE) live journal club and the JASE Podcast.

In this episode, Sarah Blissett, MD, and Sabe De, MD, FASE, join Amer Johri, MD, FASE, to discuss the paper, “Normal Values of Cardiac Output and Stroke Volume According to Measurement Technique, Age, Sex, and Ethnicity: Results of the World Alliance of Societies of Echocardiography Study” by Patel et al., with a special introduction from JASE Editor-in-Chief, Michael Picard, MD. FASE. Learn more about the nuances of assessment of cardiac output and stroke volume based on patient demographics and measurement techniques in this newest edition of the JASE podcast.

If you missed any of the podcasts from the 2021 Summer Series, you can listen to all of the episodes here.

Submit your abstract of original research or clinical cases to be considered for presentation at the premier cardiovascular ultrasound conference of the year, the 33rd Annual ASE Scientific Sessions in Seattle, Washington, June 10-13, 2022. Begin your submission online today! Presenters benefit from dedicated viewing times, a global audience that promotes future collaborative work, eligibility for travel support, and discounted conference registration rates. Visit the ASE 2022 Call for Science for more information. Submission closes Wednesday, February 9, 2022, at 11:59 ET.