title: The value of independent specialty designation for interventional cardiology.
abstract: Interventional cardiology has finally completed, after 26 years of advocacy, a professional hat trick: independent board certification, membership as a unique specialty in the American Medical Association House of Delegates (AMA HOD), and recognition by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) as a separate medical specialty. This article points out how these distinctions for interventional cardiology and its professional society, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), have led to clear and definite benefits for interventional cardiologists and their patients. We focus on the least understood of these three-recognition by CMS and its implications for reimbursement and quality assessment for interventional cardiologists. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Blankenship
authors.affiliation: Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, 1100 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
authors.forename: Wayne A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.affiliation: Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, 1100 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
authors.forename: Dawn R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, FirstHealth of the Carolinas, Reid Heart Center, Pinehurst, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Peter L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Duffy
mesh_terms: D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000145:classification* / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D002309:Cardiology / Q000145:classification* / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D002568:Certification; D002983:Clinical Competence; D006801:Humans; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013038:Specialization / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D013044:Specialty Boards; D014481:United States
keywords: payment policy; professional society; specialty