Message from the President

As the rules and regulations regarding medical practice continue to change, our intent is to keep our practitioners informed as much as possible. The Keynote address will be on Guidelines for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Women followed by a number of exciting topics on current therapies and issues in various aspects of your practice. You will be hearing a very timely presentation on “Heart Failure Device Appropriateness,” given the debate in the journals and newspapers last year over this issue. As the imaging and interventions that we perform are coming under attack in the media and the legislature, understanding and complying with “appropriateness” is vital to our success.

We are pleased that Dan Reeves will be joining us and delivering the Saturday night address. Dan is an entertaining individual well known to Georgians and has a unique perspective on what we do and how we do it. I’m sure everyone will enjoy his talk and the opportunity to spend time with him.

This will be our last meeting before the 2012 elections. The last few years have been tough on medicine in general and cardiology in particular. The economy is in trouble and physicians are only one of many groups asking Congress not to impose any more cuts on us. In order to have the most effective voice possible, we need access to our representatives in order to tell our story. This is being done in two ways. Every year there is a Legislative Day where the ACC sends representatives from all states to Congress to discuss our issues. We have always had a large contingent of cardiologists from Georgia as we did this year. We are non-partisan representatives of our state and the ACC. The ACCPAC contributes to various representatives who we feel understand the needs of our patients and our practices, however these contributions come from your contributions to the ACCPAC. We need you to contribute to the PAC in order that we have a voice in Washington. Please consider doing this. Dr. Jerry Lutz is our PAC representative and will be there soliciting your help. We will also have PAC representatives from the ACC staffing the PAC booth. Anyone contributing $100 or more will receive 2 extra drink tickets and anyone contributing $250 or more will also have their name entered into a raffle for free registration and two night’s accommodations for next year’s annual meeting. Dr. Joe Wilson continues to serve as chairman of our legislative effort. He is gathering a list of members with political contacts and is willing to meet on a personal basis with state or federal legislators regarding issues pertinent to the care of our patients. Please contact him if you can volunteer.

As always, our goals for the weekend remain:

• Provide information that is relevant and practical to the care of our patients.
• Create a forum for dialog between fellow members regarding practice issues we face each day.
• Develop communication between our members and our friends in industry.
• Understand the changing face of healthcare, what ACC is doing nationally and what we might be doing locally and state wide.
• Relax with family and friends.

I want to welcome each of you to our Chapter’s Annual Meeting and I hope to see as many of you as the Ritz can hold. Traditionally, we run out of rooms, so I encourage those of you who plan to attend to register early.

Sincerely,
Robert N. Vincent, MD, CM, FACC

CMS on the 2010 Proposed Physician Fee Schedule

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