In This Issue

Presidents Message

2014 Election Results

Spotlight:

Newly Elected Board Mem-

bers

Reimbursement

Spring Conference Recap

2014 Service Award and

website changes Summertime: Take time for family, friends & self-fulfilling activities to rejuvenate your soul.

A message from our Association President…

We are not alone. This was the phrase that kept running through my head as I attended the AACVPR Affiliate Leadership Forum June 7-8th in Chicago, IL. I had the opportunity to meet with other affiliate leaders and talk to them about their struggles and share in their successes. As we discussed the many differences and similari-ties about our programs, I kept thinking to myself, “WOW, we are not alone! They are going through the same thing we are!” Other programs share in our difficulty with enrolling patients with high co-pays, program com-pliance, hospitals cutting staff and even entire programs. However, there are so many positives as well. Out-standing Affiliate Award Winners shared what they are doing to make their programs great, we shared in pa-tient successes and rejoiced in the long-awaited heart failure diagnosis that is now covered for Cardiac Rehab. Friends, colleagues, members; we are not alone. Not in our association, region and our nation. So many pro-fessionals, including all of you, work hard every day for your program and our association to improve process-es and legislation to bring the best possible quality of care to our patients. We are doing great things and we are doing them together. I am honored to be the President of this association and will continue to work hard reach out to professional in our region, improve communication and networking and enhance the quality of our association.

Heart Failure and MAC Update. Heart Failure reimbursement for Cardiac Rehab was approved by Medi-care (CMS) in February 2014. Unfortunately, every MAC seems to have a different understanding of when and how to reimburse. Please read the Reimbursement update by our NW MAC representative.

Finding the “N”. NWCVPR needs your help in identifying ALL cardiac and pulmonary rehab programs in Washington, Idaho and Alaska. Please contact me if you know of any programs opening, recently closed, or to confirm your program, location and contact information.

New NWCVPR Board Members. Welcome to our new 2014-2016 Board Members! I look forward to work-ing with all of you over the next two years. A sincere THANK YOU to all the Board members who are rolling off, for you support of NWCVP. See Spotlight for details.

Have a safe and enjoyable summer!

Best in Health, Karen

Northwest Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Newsletter Summer 2014

NWCVPR NEWS

Election Results:

WELCOME! and CONGRATULATIONS to our new NWCVPR Board

members! We are excited for the next two years and look forward

to their fresh ideas and enthusiastic approach to our Association’s

future!

Please see the next page for a Spotlight on our new Board members.

As we bring in the new Board we also want to SAY THANK YOU!

We APPRECIATE your service to our outgoing Board members:

Amber Schwehr, our secretary since 2012

Bruce Cox, our Regional Rep. for Western WA since 2012

Matt Schoos, Regional Rep. for Eastern WA since 2012

————————————————————————————

We are also welcoming back the following Board members who

are still serving are Association:

Karen Edwards, President NWCVPR

Shelley Schmitz, Treasurer NWCVPR

Kristi Holden, Idaho Regional Representative NWCVPR

Dana Gunter, Immediate Past President NWCVPR

SPOTLIGHT ON NEW NWCVPR BOARD MEMBERS

PRESIDENT: Elizabeth (Liz) Browning

Thank you for this opportunity to serve. I have worked as a Cardiac Rehab RN since 1992, com-ing from years in critical care, it was a big transi-tion. What I feel passionate about is the time I

get to spend educating my patients. Seeing the light bulb come on as a pa-tient starts wanting to take control of changes they can make to lower their risk. I learn from my patients every day.

Working with my peers in NWCVPR has been educational, supportive and a great resource. I hope to continue that communication within our mem-bers and encourage non-member professionals to join us.

Acuity has increased in our patients and too many of them are now younger than me. We talk about what they are doing to manage stress and doing fun and enjoyable activities. Relaxation is necessary for me too. On a weekend or after work, out comes beadwork; on go the blues and maybe a glass of wine. Catching up with family keeps me sane also.

I look forward to working with members I know and meeting new mem-bers. We are a profession that is specialized and very necessary. Our pa-tients are our best advertisement to the community for the great job we do.

Liz

Elizabeth (Liz) Browning RN, BSN Cardiac Rehab Coordinator

Skagit Valley Hospital lbrowning@skagitvalleyhospital.org

SECRETARY

Hello, my name is Lindsey Olsen, I am very excited to be the new Secre-

tary for NWCVPR. I have been working at Tacoma General Hospital for the last 7 years and I come home every night loving my job and the patients I get to help. I have been a part of the LVAD team at Tacoma General for the last year and have enjoyed helping other programs to enroll this group of patients. For the next two years I hope as secre-tary to help members of NWCVPR to network with each other and share valuable in-formation about cardiac and pulmonary rehab.

Lindsay Olsen

Lindsay Olsen| BS, ACSM Certified Clinical Exercise Specialist

Preventive Cardiology | MultiCare Health System

Lindsay.Olsen@multicare.org

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE WESTERN WASHINGTON

Hello, my name is Jeff Rhodes, I have been working in cardiac and pulmo-

nary rehab at Skagit Valley Hospital for just over 5 years. Some of my co-workers have been involved as volunteers in NWCVPR in the past, and have told me it's a rewarding experience. I have noticed that our organization seems to have a lot of very active mem-bers in a small geographical area. My goal is to spend the next two years working with cardiac and/or pulmonary rehab programs in the Western Washington Region not only to increase NWCVPR membership, but to help increase inter-program communication and cooperation as well. I'm looking forward to working with the board and member-ship! Jeff Rhodes, ACSM-CES Cardiac / Pulmonary Rehab Heart Healthy Fitness jrhodes@skagitvalleyhospital.org

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE EASTERN WASHINGTON

Hi my name is Crystal Rouse, I have been a nurse at Yakima Regional Hospital for 5

years, before that I worked here as a unit secretary on ICU while I attended Washington State Uni-

versity and received my BSN. Before returning to the Yakima Valley, I worked for a year in Renton

at Valley Medical Center, then for a year in Wenatchee at Central Washington Hospital. I have been

married for 8 years to my husband Frank; he is a pilot that flies locally here in Yakima for a fruit

company. We have a 4 year old daughter named Piper and a 2 year old son named Frankie who

keeps me very busy on my “days off”. We enjoy all aspects of the PNW, camping, hiking, and fish-

ing and of course the sunshine when we can. Both of our large families live locally, so that also

makes life fun.

I made the switch from working full time on a cardiac telemetry floor to part time in Cardiac Rehab

2 years ago in August. I was unhappy at that time and looking for a change in my life. I was hoping

to combine my love of cardiac patients with my love of fitness and health, so Cardiac Rehab has

been the perfect choice for me and my family life.

I heard about NWCVPR through Matt our Exercise Specialist, Matt was our past Representative.

Once I came along we both thought that I would enjoy getting involved and being the next Repre-

sentative. In the gym we mostly treat CABG, Valve replacements, STEMI’s and Stent patients.

What I’m looking forward to in the upcoming years is the possibility of treating CHF patients. I think

this will be a very beneficial service to our patients that suffer from Heart Failure. Currently I’m fo-

cusing my efforts on bringing in more Pulmonary Rehab patients as well.

I look forward to getting to know each of you and working together for the next 2 years.

Crystal Rouse RN, BSN Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab crystal.rouse@hma.com

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE: Alaska

Meet Ivy Hollinrake, Ivy graduated with Honors, with a Major in Nursing and a Minor in the Biological Sciences. She is Board Certified in Cardiac Rehab Nursing. Her past accomplishments include CCRN certification, ACLS, Regional Faculty and BLS Instructor and ACLS program di-rector at FMH for 3 years. She has been actively involved with the American Heart Association and the Fairbanks Heart Walk for 16 years.

Ivy has been an RN for 30 years, specializing in Cardiovascular Nursing and has been the RN Manager for Cardiac Rehab for the past 16 years. For the 14 years prior to that she worked as a Flight Nurse, as well as ICU/ CCU and Open Heart as Staff , Supervisor and Nurse Manager in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and New Jersey.

In 2014 she received the Golden Heart Hero's Award for volunteerism, in 2007 the AHA Volun-teer of the Year Award, in 2006 the Heart Saver of the Year Award, and in 2005 she received the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Award for Cardiac Rehab Nursing.

Ivy has 5 grown children (one deceased) and 17 grandchildren. She is passionate about children, healthy living and healthy aging. She values the five “F” principals important in her life: Faith, Family, Friends, Flowers (planting and playing in the dirt) and Fishing.

She is very excited to step up and get more involved in NWCVPR. I was honored last year to be the recipient of a stipend so I could attend DOTH. It was an amazing experience and I was chal-lenged to learn more about the political processes that bring about positive and needed change. I feel at a disadvantage being so far away from mainland USA and am passionate to keep Alaska connected in every way possible to AACVPR. I look forward to being more involved in every way I can.

Ivy Hollinrake, RN-C, BSN

Nurse manager, Cardiac Rehab

Ivy.Hollinrake@bannerhealth.com

www.nwcvpr.com

Newly improved website with more information and a great new look!

Check us out!

REIMBURSEMENT UPDATE

July 1, 2014 Heart Failure Reimbursement Update:

The long awaited Heart Failure reimbursement for Cardiac Rehab was approved by Medicare

(CMS) in February 2014. Unfortunately, due to program updates to the regional MAC’s and their

Medical Directors understanding of the new coverage – every MAC seems to have a different un-

derstanding of when and how to reimburse.

HISTORY: AACVPR originally announced in March, at the Day on the HILL gathering, that we were good to go to start the Heart Failure patients that met the CMS specific guidelines – see AACVPR website or CMS website to review these guidelines. With this in mind, we knew that we could ini-tially be denied payment but that we could re-bill for the services and expect reimbursement even-tually from CMS, since it was approved starting February, 2014. http://www.aacvpr.org/Resources/ResourcesforAACVPRMembers/HeartFailureResources/tabid/875/Default.aspx Unfortunately, follow up phone calls to MAC Medical Directors, resulted in a variety of responses

from: YES we are covering for HF diagnosis that meets the CMS criteria to

NO we are not covering HF until we receive software updates from CMS…..

With this in mind, the thought is to advance cautiously with the HF patients. In most cases, the HF

patient has an additional standard Cardiac Rehab reimbursable diagnosis: CABG, MI, Stent, Valve

R/R, Angina…..so the patients would therefore be covered by CMS regardless. For those few pa-

tients who ONLY meet the CMS HF criteria, without an additional cardiac diagnosis, there is still no

announcement from our MAC J-F that you will get reimbursed on the first billing. Nationally or in

the NW, I have not heard of even one incident of denial but officially our NW MAC J-F, has not noti-

fied us of Cardiac Rehab coverage for the HF only patient.

In most programs, including my own, we have had only one or two patients that are HF only. We

have chosen to enroll them, knowing that the reimbursement from CMS or our MAC J-F may be de-

layed in being sent to us. At the same time recognizing that this diagnosis is approved by CMS and

should be reimbursed to this specific group of patients that have been denied this treatment for so

many years.

Review this information with your billing office or directors and make a decision as to how your

program wants to handle this situation. AACVPR asks, and NWCVPR encourages, that you or your

billing office do not contact our MAC office directly with this question, but rather allow your

AACVPR reimbursement committee representative, myself, Joyce Kratz Klatt, keep you informed

with any changes specific to our MAC J-F office. NWCVPR will send out an EBLAST immediately if

we get specific information regarding this issue and keep you updated as to any changes.

I do ask that you forward any questions, concerns to me; as well as any information regarding an

official denial or reimbursement received for HF only patients.

Thank you,

Joyce Kratz Klatt 208-625-4693 jkratzklatt@kh.org NEW phone# & email!!

NWCVPR SPRING CONFERENCE 2014 SUMMARY

By Lindsay Olsen

It was such a pleasure to co-chair our annual conference this year and I am

looking forward to working with Nancy Handeland and the NWCVPR board to plan

our conference for next year.

We had 44 attendees and at least 2 student interns that attended this year’s

conference. It was a good year for sponsorship as we had 12 vendors present at

tables sponsoring our conference. I really enjoyed having new vendors willing to

sponsor and providing us with information and hands on experience with their prod-

ucts, such as Precor bringing a piece of equipment like the AMT for conference at-

tendees to try.

Dr. Donald Shaw was a great speaker to bring in and was given high scores on

both of his presentations. His presentation on Motivating Cardiopulmonary Patients

I think is one we all can relate to and constantly try to improve at our places of

work. Dr. Tony Kim’s presentation on Integrating Heart Failure into Cardiac Rehab

was a great way to start off this new endeavor of finally having coverage to see

heart failure patients in outpatient cardiac rehab. A special thanks to Glenn Bean

for going to DOTH and presenting information he received about integrating heart

failure patients into cardiac and pulmonary rehab and reimbursement. We truly ap-

preciate you taking the time to do this and presenting it at the conference this

year!

As for next year’s conference Nancy and I have read the very valuable feed-

back given by those who attended the conference. We will work on having speakers

present on topics such as exercise prescription, progressing patients throughout

cardiac rehab, and the role of the clinical exercise specialist in cardiac and pulmo-

nary rehab programs. We will make sure to keep healthy options for lunches as well

as extra coffee in the morning.

Thank you to all that attended and I am looking forward to seeing you all

again at next years conference!

Change is good!

Please check out

the changes to our

Website at:

www.nwcvpr.com

There is new stuff!

Thanks to Shelley

Schmitz, we have a

new website with:

More information

Pay Pal options

Useful links

Easy to use

Looks great!

Thanks Shelley!

NWCVPR CONTACT INFORMATION

NWCVPR email address: info@nwcvpr.com

Go to the website: www.nwcvpr.com

Shelley Schmitz is the 2014 recipient of the Excellence in Service Award!

The End!