dr. dr. weaver. >> chairman and ranking member. i'm dr. doug weaver. today i'm pleased to speak to you on behalf of the american college of cardiology. if the college can make one suggestion it would be create stability in the system. it is badly needed rite now. the current uncertainty around medicare physician payments, around the aca and its initiatives is seriously impeding progress by physicians and hospitals toward delivery and payment reforms. the college has had several decades of experience in developing and applying quality improvement tools including clinical practice guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of common cardiac diseases. appropriate use criteria which allow physicians to better apply the right test and cardiac procedures. then a clinical registries in which physicians and hospitals can submit their data around cardiac procedures or whatever, they then get it back and are able to benchmark it against the whole nation as well as locally. we believe that broader use of these tools will improve quality, will produce better patient o

dr. weaver. >> i'm dr. weaver, vice president of cardiology and assistant medical director for services in the ford health system in detroit. i'm please to speak you on behalf of the american college of cardiology. if the college to make one suggestion for medicare payment policy would be, create stability in the system. it is badly needed right now. the current uncertainty around medicare physician payments, around the aca and its initiative is seriously competing -- impeding progress by physicians and hospitals towards delivery and payment reforms. the colleges had several decades of experience developing and applying quality improvement tools including producing clinical practice guidelines for diagnoses and treatment of common cardiac diseases, producing appropriate use criteria which allow physicians to better apply the right tests, diagnostic testing and cardiac procedures and then our clinical registries in which physicians and hospitals can submit their data around cardiac procedures. they can then g