Please TAKE ACTION to make Ohio the 28th State to pass “CPR in Schools” legislation.

House Bill 113 will require students to receive instruction in CPR and the use of AEDs between ninth grade and graduation.

As cardiovascular specialists, we believe it is our duty to build heart healthy communities. It is important we keep the pressure on House members to pass HB 113. Please click the link below to register your support. Your message will be sent directly to your lawmaker. While you have the option of forwarding a letter of support to your elected officials, we encourage you to revise letter to explain why as a physician, nurse or other health care professional you support CPR legislation. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join this effort.

Please CLICK HERE to send a letter today and ask your lawmakers to support CPR in Schools so more lives are saved!

In a Leadership Page published Feb. 1 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), ACC President Kim Allan Williams Sr., MD, FACC, and ACC President-Elect Richard A. Chazal, MD, FACC, discuss the importance of provider diversity. They cite a study presented this past November and simultaneously published in JACC which showed “not only substantial salary differences between male and female practicing cardiologists, but also dramatically different job descriptions – despite sharing the same specialty.” They explain that “we need to pay special attention not only to this particular issue, but also to the broader issue of workforce diversity,” and add that “The ACC can and must be both a leader and a convener in this area.” Read more. 

Last year, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced an accelerated transition to alternative payment models (APMs) for Medicare recipients with a target of 30 percent of payments linked to value in 2016 and 50 percent in 2018. As part of the effort to transition America's health care system from volume to value, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services established the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network (LAN), which convenes providers, consumers, purchasers, states and federal partners to establish a common pathway for success. The ACC, as an early follower of the LAN, acquired partner status in 2015. The Health Care Transformation Task Force (HCTTF) is another group dedicated to advancing value-based payment. The HCTTF, which brings together providers, payers, purchasers and consumers, was formed in early 2015 with the goal of having 75 percent of respective businesses operating under value-based payment arrangements by 2020.Both of these groups are key players to follow in the movement to a value-based reimbursement environment. Read more about the LAN and HCTTF. The LAN's recently released APM Framework White Paper is available here.