American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
For Immediate Release Oct 31, 2008

OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS: The prompt action of the AMSSM and other societies to educate CMS regarding the unnecessary administrative burden, decrease in quality of patient care, and potential use of more expensive imaging modalities all helped prevent passage of this regulation.

Thank you to everyone who wrote letters regarding this subject to CMS. It really did make a difference. In working to defeat this legislation, the AMSSM brought this topic to the attention of many societies whose members have a stake in office imaging. The AMSSM also partnered closely with the ACSM to maximize the strengths of each society.

CMS has left the door open to revisit this subject. We will continue to work with other societies and industry to stay abreast of the situation. AMSSM has formed an US task force and will be meeting with other society leaders to discuss how to establish competence in MSK US. Our goal is to make sure that people who are using and billing for MSK US are competent but that the criteria to meet competency standards are obtainable for those in practice.

Thanks again for your hard work and prompt action. The power of AMSSM is truly with its members.

The government link to this ruling is: http://federalregister.gov/page2.aspx#special

Additional information: Section 135 of the MIPPA requires that the Secretary establish an accreditation process for those entities furnishing advanced diagnostic testing procedures which include diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and nuclear medicine (including positron emission tomography), and other such diagnostic testing procedures described in section 1848(b)(4)(B) of the Act(excluding X-ray, ultrasound, and fluoroscopy) by January 1, 2012.

The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) was organized in 1991 by physicians who recognized the need for an organization within the field of sports medicine that approached athletes, exercising individuals and teams comprehensively with consultative and continuous care of their orthopedic, medical, nutritional and psychosocial issues. Although sports medicine concepts are often thought of in conjunction with professional and elite athletes, these concepts apply to athletes of all levels including grade school, high school, college and recreational athletes. AMSSM is comprised of over 1000 Sports Medicine Physicians whose goal is to provide a link between the rapidly expanding core of knowledge related to sports medicine and its application to patients in a clinical setting.

NOTE: For more information, please contact the AMSSM, 11639 Earnshaw, Overland Park, KS 66210, (913) 327-1415.