The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is about to recognize interventional cardiologists as a subspecialty. CMS officials say that this wil encourage fairer and more accurate comparisons of in heart matters. Modern Healthcare reported that , the new classification means these cardiologists can bill Medicare for consultations requested by a general cardiology colleague. It also means yet more paperwork.
Stephen Ramee, M.D., chairman of the American College of Cardiology’s Intervention Council, told Modern Healthcare:
“General cardiologists are ‘cognitive’ doctors, we’re ‘doing’ doctors. It’s akin to a general cardiologist being the general contractor, the electrophysiologists being the electricians and the interventional cardiologists being the plumbers.”
