Articles & Press Releases

Don’t get too comfortable with today’s knowledge on the Quality Payment Program. Some changes are being proposed for 2018, mostly related to increased reporting requirements to avoid the 5 percent Medicare payment penalty in 2020.

As Executive Director of SVS, one of my priorities, and great joys, is to find opportunities to meet and talk with SVS members locally in their own communities and practices. I hear a lot of ideas expressed at meetings of course, but seeing things first-hand, and talking to partners and team members about their local issues and practice environments and their needs, helps me to understand how SVS can best help. 

Despite affecting 25 million Americans, including two to six million with ulcer conditions, chronic venous insufficiency is relatively understudied compared to other vascular diseases. Yet for patients with venous leg ulcers, their condition is debilitating, painful and embarrassing.

News From SVS | First Data Collection Year Coming to an End

SVS members have a narrow window remaining to participate in the Quality Payment Program (QPP) this year and avoid a 4 percent Medicare reimbursement penalty in 2019. The final 90-day reporting period began Oct. 2.

The Foundation has had a consequential year, with another beckoning, as the Foundation Board of Directors expanded the mission to add an emphasis on disease prevention and patient education.

After nearly six months of preliminary work, the APM Task Force now is focusing on developing a vascular-specific Advanced Alternative Payment Model.

CHICAGO, Illinois, October, 2017 – Asymptomatic carotid stenosis may not be as silent as once thought.

A new prospective trial reported in the October Journal of Vascular Surgery found that around half of asymptomatic carotid stenosis patients had mild to moderate cognitive impairment.

Colleagues:

Please join me in sending our heartfelt prayers and thoughts to our Society members in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas and all the areas recently hit by disaster.

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For surgeons, it can be difficult to get patients to come back a year after surgery for follow-up tests or an office visit.

Vascular Nurses Week is September 10-16

Thanks to mailings and websites that claim statin medications are harmful or unnecessary, many patients are confused about whether they should take them. That’s unfortunate.

As we age, it is common to be concerned about heart disease or high blood pressure. But many people don’t know that those conditions are also related to another common health issue, peripheral artery disease (PAD). Unfortunately, many patients are not diagnosed until it has progressed.

BY MALACHI SHEAHAN III, MD

The simple introduction of a color-coded card has helped two Texas facilities improve discharge medication compliance and documentation, potentially improving patient outcomes.

“Current practice of thoracic outlet decompression surgery in the United States.” J Vasc Surg Sept. 2017.

Spending an entire day or so learning about the history of the Medicare and Medicaid programs? Fascinating, said Dr. Matthew Sideman, chair of the SVS Coding and Reimbursement Committee.

The 2017 Vascular Annual Meeting piled on the events: six postgraduate courses, and only time to attend three. Concurrent sessions that – true to their name – were held at the same time. Ditto with breakfast sessions.

Dr. R. Clement Darling III began his presidency of the Society for Vascular Surgery on Saturday, June 3, during the Vascular Annual Meeting.

1. What would you like your presidency remembered for?

The SVS Executive Board has established a task force charged with exploring the potential for developing a vascular certification program for inpatient and outpatient vascular care settings.

Does the anemic – but high cardiac risk – patient need a blood transfusion, or not?

SVS member Dr. Panos Kougias is leading a study on the best transfusion approach when treating patients at high cardiac risk who become anemic postoperatively.

Other members of the 2017-2018 Executive Committee include:

Dr. Michel Makaroun, president-elect

“Evaluation of Thrombolysis Using Tissue Plasminogen Activator in Lower Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis with Concomitant Femoral-Popliteal Venous Segment Involvement.” Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders, September, 2017.

The SVS Patient Safety Organization and M2S, in conjunction with the SVS, presented a webinar last month on getting started in the Medicare reimbursement program, including the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).