May 31, 2018 By

Don’t Miss an Interactive Live Webinar on Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion/Exclusion Next Tuesday

Join Muhamed Saric, MD, PhD, FASE, on Tuesday, June 5 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, for an interactive live webinar as he reviews the recent state-of-the-art review on left atrial appendage occlusion/exclusion and procedural guidance with echocardiography in the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography. As the senior author, he will update you on how atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia worldwide and is a major risk factor for embolic stroke.  Furthermore, he will discuss the crucial role of two- and three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography in the pre- and postprocedural assessment and intraprocedural guidance of percutaneous left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion procedures. Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for attending this live webinar event. Registration is free for ASE members. Register online today!

Interested in this topic, but the scheduled time is not convenient for you? Register for the live webinar and an email will be sent to you once the recorded webinar (non-CME) is available in your content on ASEUniversity. You may then view it at your convenience.

Filed Under: General, News
May 31, 2018 By

ASE Retains AMA’s HOD Status

ASE is proud to announce that the Society has successfully met all the requirements needed to maintain its seat in the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates.

As a member of the House of Delegates ASE:

  • Helps sets the legislative and regulatory priorities for the AMA.
  • Has full delegate status which provides ASE with full representation before CPT/RUC.
    • This delegate role has contributed to some of ASE’s more recent, substantial advocacy successes.

This is a critical piece that allows ASE to work to protect echocardiography and provide your patients with access to necessary care.

For more detailed information, please read: The ABC’s of Payment for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Services and Why the AMA Matters.

ASE will continue to ensure your voice is heard on issues related to legislative matters, regulatory issues, coding, and reimbursement.

Thank you for joining the ASE and the AMA and making sure echo continues to have a strong voice!

Filed Under: Advocacy News, General, News
May 31, 2018 By

Help Us Celebrate ASE’s 2018 Student Award Winners at the Scientific Sessions

The ASE Awards Committee has selected their student award winners for 2018. These winners will be recognized at the 29th Annual Scientific Sessions in Nashville, TN this June. A large number of entries were received this year, and here are the deserving selections:

  • Katanick Student Scholarship Award: Oksana Semkiv
  • Alan D. Waggoner Student Scholarship Recipients: Jennifer Andrews, Veronica Dudek, Rochelle Graveline, Emily Hafner, Anita Keck, Jin Laudadio, Amanda Lewis, Meghan Lowe, Forrest Olson, Emily Tanel, Rachel Tutwiler, Summer Vandigo, Heather Wallace, Kassie Warren, and Jessica Wright
  • UltraEcho Cardiovascular Sonographer Student Travel Grant: Amber Cyrus
  • Feigenbaum Cardiovascular Sonographer Student Travel Grant: Randall Brown

All these student award winners are provided with a travel stipend and other financial assistance with grants from the ASE Foundation. Like to encourage this type of career support? Make a donation to the ASE Foundation today.

Filed Under: General, News
May 10, 2018 By

Register for an Interactive Live Webinar on Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion/Exclusion

Join Muhamed Saric, MD, PhD, FASE, on Tuesday, June 5 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, for an interactive live webinar as he reviews the recent state-of-the-art review on left atrial appendage occlusion/exclusion and procedural guidance with echocardiography in the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography. As the senior author, he will update the audience on how atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia worldwide and is a major risk factor for embolic stroke.  Furthermore, he will discuss the crucial role of two- and three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography in the pre- and postprocedural assessment and intraprocedural guidance of percutaneous left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion procedures. Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for attending this live webinar event. Registration is free for ASE members. Register online today!

Interested in this topic, but the scheduled time is not convenient for you? Register for the live webinar and an email will be sent to you once the recorded webinar (non-CME) is available in your content on ASEUniversity. You can then view it at your convenience.

Filed Under: General, News
April 11, 2018 By

ASE 2018 Coding Newsletter Available

Coding accurately for the services you provide is essential, especially in today’s environment of declining reimbursement and increased scrutiny. ASE is committed to ensuring you are fairly reimbursed for your work. Reporting the most appropriate CPT® code is essential in the correct reporting of services to obtain fair and reasonable reimbursement for procedures, tests, and visits. To ensure accurate billing, ASE has developed the 2018 ASE Coding Newsletter that is now available.

Filed Under: Advocacy News, General
February 21, 2018 By

Need Your Help to Establish Reimbursement for Category III Echocardiographic CPT™ Codes

Coding accurately for the services you provide is essential, especially in today’s environment when you are facing declining reimbursement and increased scrutiny. ASE is committed to ensuring you are fairly reimbursed for your work. In this effort, the Society was able to establish two new Category III echocardiographic CPT™ codes and encourages you to use them when appropriate.

While category III codes are not reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), these codes are sometimes reimbursed by private payers. ASE is meeting with private payers in an effort to establish reimbursement. Additionally, CMS will track submission of these codes. There will be an opportunity for this code to progress to Category I status over the next few years based on 1) utilization and 2) additional peer reviewed publications demonstrating efficacy.

CPT™ code +0399T: Myocardial strain imaging has emerged as a sensitive tool for assessing regional and global left ventricular systolic function. +0399T is to be reported once per encounter in addition to the appropriate echocardiography base codes 93303-93351.

CPT™ code +0439T: Myocardial contrast perfusion echocardiography imaging code aids in the detection of myocardial ischemia and myocardial viability and is well-tolerated and safe in both ambulatory and critically ill patients. This code should be submitted whenever myocardial contrast perfusion echocardiography is performed but may be used only in conjunction with echocardiography base codes 93306, 93307, 93308, 93350, 93351.

There is a time frame for utilization. If the codes are not used they may “sunset” after five years, eliminating the opportunity to establish reimbursement and limiting patients’ access to the technology. Therefore, ASE is encouraging you to share information about these new codes with your lab staff and business departments and submit these codes whenever myocardial strain imaging or myocardial perfusion echocardiography is performed.

Filed Under: Advocacy News, General
November 7, 2017 By

How to Review Your QRUR and PQRS Reports Before the December 1st Deadline

2016 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) feedback reports and 2016 Annual Quality and Resource Use Reports (QRURs) were released on September 18, 2017. Dr. Geoffrey Rose, an ASE Board and Advocacy Committee member, developed a brief presentation on these reports to help ASE members understand what they are, how they impact you, and how to read them.

These reports will determine whether providers are subject to the 2018 PQRS downward payment adjustment and your practice’s 2018 Value Modifier payment adjustment. If you believe information contained in these reports is incorrect, you may request an informal review of your 2016 PQRS results and/or 2018 Value Modifier calculation during the informal review period from now until December 1, 2017 8:00 PM Eastern Time (ET).

Filed Under: Advocacy News
July 17, 2017 By

2018 MPFS AND HOPPS Proposed Rules

ASE is working on a detailed and targeted analysis of the CY 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Proposed Rule and the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) Proposed Rule. ASE will issue comments to the CMS once these proposals have been thoroughly evaluated. Comments from the healthcare community on both proposed rules will be accepted by CMS until September 11, 2017.  Learn more here.

Filed Under: Advocacy News, General
July 13, 2017 By

ASE 2017 Online Library Now Available

Were you unable to attend ASE 2017 in Baltimore? Well, today is your lucky day. We are pleased to announce that the ASE 2017 Scientific Sessions Online Library is now available for purchase. The theme of this year’s Scientific Sessions was “Investigate-Innovate-Incorporate.” Some highlights include multiple sessions on Critical Care Echo, Cardio-Oncology, and Structural Heart Disease. ASE members can purchase the entire Library for only $299. Options are also available to purchase single sessions. Take a look around and search for the topics of interest to you.

Filed Under: News
July 13, 2017 By

Register for the Upcoming Live Guideline-based Webinar

Join Judy Hung, MD, FASE, on Wednesday, August 9 at 4:00 PM Eastern Time, for an interactive live webinar as she reviews Recommendations on the Echocardiographic Assessment of Aortic Valve Stenosis: A Focused Update from the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging and the American Society of Echocardiography. During this webinar, Dr. Hung will discuss both basic and advanced echocardiographic measurements of assessing aortic stenosis severity, incorporating key technical aspects, and new research about how to evaluate the difficult subgroup of patients with low flow aortic stenosis.  Most importantly, she will review a key feature of this focused update which presents a new classification scheme for aortic stenosis that focuses on gradient, stroke volume flow, and LVEF in an integrated, stepwise algorithm. Earn 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ for attending this live webinar event. Registration is free for ASE members. Register online today!

Filed Under: News
American Society of Echocardiography
The Society for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Professionals
2530 Meridian Parkway, Suite 450
Durham, NC 27713
919.861.5574

Copyright © 2024 American Society of Echocardiography

Privacy Policy