CMS Grants Physician Specialty Designation for Interventional Cardiology

May 28, 2014—The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) announced that the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has granted the society’s request for a new specialty designation for interventional cardiology. The new designation recognizes interventional cardiology as a distinct physician specialty and will become effective later this year. SCAI expects that CMS will release details on how interventional cardiologists may change their specialty designation this summer. 

In the society’s press release, SCAI president Ted A. Bass, MD, commented, “Recognition as a separate and distinct specialty is an important milestone for interventional cardiology. The designation reflects the life-saving and life-enhancing treatments developed by our field over nearly 40 years and the ongoing innovation that will allow us to continue to advance quality of care for our patients.”

SCAI noted that since the field of interventional cardiology was established approximately 40 years ago with innovative heart disease treatments, such as coronary angioplasty, the field has broadened to include catheter-based treatments for a wide range of cardiovascular diseases. These include peripheral artery disease, heart valve defects, stroke, and congenital heart defects. Today, interventional cardiology procedures are now the gold standard treatment options for a number of cardiac conditions, most notably, heart attacks.