ASNC and ASE Announce 2020 QCDR Designation for the ImageGuide Registry®

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) and the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) are pleased to announce that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have approved the ImageGuide Registry® as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for 2020. The designation as a QCDR allows the ImageGuide Registry to submit provider data to meet reporting requirements under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for the 2020 reporting year. Successful participation in MIPS will allow physicians to avoid an automatic negative payment adjustment on all Medicare receivables. Read more here.

CASE Now Includes CME Opportunities

CASE, ASE’s online, open access case reports journal, kicks off its fourth year of publishing with the debut of FREE CME for ASE members. Each activity includes four articles published in CASE, and offers 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. ASE and CASE’s Editorial Team are excited to announce that Andy Pellett, PhD, RCS, RDCS, FASE, from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, is CASE’s CME Editor.

The four articles in this initial CME opportunity are all related to pediatric and congenital heart disease. These activities include:

  • A Case of Full-Term Infant With Symptomatic Patent Ductus Arteriosus Successfully Closed With Indomethacin Treatment: Consideration of Mechanism for Ductus Arteriosus Closure
  • Giant Thrombotic Right Coronary Aneurysm in an Infant with Undiagnosed Incomplete Kawasaki Disease and Rapidly Progressive Cardiovascular Collapse
  • Isolated Endocarditis of Native Pulmonary Valve in a Pediatric Patient: The Unusual within the Unusual
  • Prenatal Detection of Anomalous Right Coronary Artery with an Interarterial Course

Next Twitter Journal Club – January 21

Interact with your colleagues in our next Twitter Journal Club on Tuesday, January 21, from 8:00 – 9:00 PM US EST. January’s Twitter Journal Club will review the case, Percutaneous Repair of Severe Eccentric MR Due to Medial Commissural Flail: Challenges for Imaging and Intervention. Co-Author Stephen H. Little, MD, FASE as well as Nadeen Faza, MD, will join moderator, Ritu Thamman, MD, FASE, during this month’s Journal club.

NEW! As an ASE member, you can now receive FREE CME for participating. Register here BEFORE the Twitter Journal Club to guarantee your free CME.

Follow @ASE360, and please plan to join ASE’s journal club. Be sure to use the hashtag #ASEchoJC for all tweets. Click here to find out when the Twitter Journal Club is taking place in your timezone. If you have any questions on this event, please contact us here

Submission for MIPS 2019 Now Open and Check on Your 2020 Eligibility

CMS recently announced that the MIPS 2019 Data Submission Period is now open. MIPS eligible clinicians can start submitting data for 2019 through March 31, 2020. Also, you can now use the updated CMS Quality Payment Program Participation Status Lookup Tool to check on your initial 2020 eligibility for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). For more detailed information please click here. Interested in learning how ASE’s ImageGuideEcho™ Registry can help with future MIPS submissions? Contact Info@ImageGuideEcho.org for more information or to request a demonstration.

New Guideline Published For Stress Echocardiography In Ischemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) occurs when the arteries of the heart cannot deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the heart and is the leading cause of death in the United States. Stress echocardiography is routinely used for the detection of flow-limiting blockages in the coronary arteries in patients with symptoms such as exertional chest pain or shortness of breath. In this era of multimodality imaging, understanding the role and advantages of stress echocardiography for the patient presenting with symptoms of potential cardiac origin is essential. Guidelines for Performance, Interpretation, and Application of Stress Echocardiography in Ischemic Heart Disease: From the American Society of Echocardiography, replaces the 2007 ASE guideline on stress echocardiography which did not include class of recommendation and level of evidence; these are now included in this updated document, in addition to current practice recommendations and training requirements. Read more here.

Celebrating Our Similarities – Dr. Madhav Swaminathan’s January Presidential Blog

For the last few years, I was focused on supporting diversity and inclusion in just about everything I’ve participated in. “Celebrating our differences” became my mantra. However, a recent conversation with a young man about why it was okay and even valuable to be different got me thinking differently when after a few thoughtful minutes, he said, “But I don’t want to be different, because I am like everyone else, right?” His words gave me pause as I pondered similarity in the face of diversity. Global travel has driven that point home. Read more here.

Myocardial Strain Imaging Add-on CPT Code and Live Webinar

ASE is proud to see the establishment of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) add-on code +93356® to report myocardial strain imaging in conjunction with various transthoracic echocardiography procedures. The successful CPT application was a collaboration between ASE and the American College of Cardiology and will be effective for Medicare claims beginning today, January 1, 2020. This is the first new echo technology to achieve CPT editorial panel category 1 status in a decade! 

The code is intended to report myocardial strain imaging in conjunction with various transthoracic echocardiography procedures 93303, 93304, 93306, and 93308 in addition to stress echocardiography services 93350 and 93351. Additionally, the intent is for this code to be reported once per imaging session. Additional information on this code can be found on ASE’s Advocacy website.

Want to learn more? Join us for a live webinar on the 2020 Reimbursement Updates including the New Strain Code +93356, Friday, January 10, at 10:00 AM Eastern Time. The webinar will be presented by Michael Main, MD, FASE, ASE Advocacy Chair and RUC and CPT Advisor, and Denise Garris, ASE’s regulatory consultant and an expert in health policy and reimbursement.

This educational webinar will focus on the latest HOPPS and physician fee schedule (PFS) changes to echo reimbursement and help you prevent the most common errors in echo coding. Specific focus will be given to the new Myocardial Strain Imaging, CPT Code +93356. ASE would like to help the entire cardiovascular community, so this webinar is free for everyone. Please encourage your administrative and billing personnel to participate.  Register now to save your space. Specific questions regarding webinar registration can be sent to Jenn Goss at  JGoss@ASEcho.org.

December GEMs

During the month of December, two ASE members recognized  their colleagues for Going the Extra Mile and received a GEM award!

  • Sarika Anand
  • Heidi Borchers

Active members of ASE are encouraged to recognize their peers as a “GEM” for Going the Extra Mile (GEM). Whether it’s for their dedication to the field of cardiovascular ultrasound, being an outstanding mentor to students or fellows, their commitment to quality patient care, going above and beyond in the past month, a milestone service anniversary, or congratulating them on a major accomplishment. No matter the reason, it is always worth recognizing your peers. Help us celebrate ASE members making the world a better place. Learn more here .

Join ASE at ACC’s Cardiovascular Summit

ASE is pleased to be a part of  ACC’s 2020 Cardiovascular Summit, February 6-8, in Washington, D.C. We encourage you to attend and experience how to align strong leadership with up-to-date business strategies to improve cardiovascular (CV) care and patient outcomes. The Summit will also cover how to implement more efficient spending, while improving the CV clinician experience. ASE President-elect Judy Hung, MD, FASE, will participate in the Joint Society Plenary Session: Imaging for CAD: Where Is the Sweet Spot for Each Modality? Dr. Hung and James Kirkpatrick, MD, FASE, along with ACC Vice President Athena Poppas, MD, FASE, will present the ASE Workshop Echo Best Practice: Limited Echoes’ Hand Held – What Is the Future? Register today  for the best rate. ASE members receive the ACC member rate and discounts are available for groups of 3 or more!

Happy Holidays from ASE