PP for my Research for Tech 1105

1. Keeping Heart Health Care a Priority in Medicare Funding

2. Abstract Proposed amendments to some health care reform proposals could reduce patient access to critical cardiac care. Together, such changes would decrease access to cardiac care, particularly in rural areas, and severely limit or better yet diminish competition and choice that should be given to every American granted our advanced health care system.

3. As the health care debate continues in Washington-mainly over public option, lost in the controversy is a little known change in Medicare policy that threatens efficient access to lifesaving medical services for millions of heart patients.

4. The Terrible Truth…. Heart disease kills more Americans than any other disease

5. The Up Side to Medicare Funding Advances in the education of cardiac care have led to a 25 %reduction in deaths due to heart disease during the past decade

6. The Toss Up !!!!!!! America's cardiologists have made great advancements against heart disease, reducing heart-related deaths by 28 %during the past 10 years. The urgent need for this specialty will continue to grow by 65% in the next 15 years Yet the policymakers at CMS, who base their decisions on numbers and statistics, are unilaterally and dramatically changing the delivery of heart care by proclaiming that care for heart disease is too costly.

7. Who? What? When? Cardiac Patients w/ Medicare will be denied routine clinical visits & forced to wait to be seen at larger hospitals. If enacted, patients will now be forced to pay for costly but necessary procedures. Those who will be greatly affected will be the elderly and residents in rural areas. Proposed changes could happen as soon as Jan. 2010.

8. Matters of the Heart The day is coming when Medicare patients - often the most vulnerable in our society - will wake up and realize they no longer have access to the timely and often urgent medical care they need .

10. Become involved with local clinics

11. Reach out to your own personal doctors