April 1 is the deadline for hospitals to transition to a new registry to submit data regarding ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) use. Medicare requires the data for hospitals to obtain payment for implanting ICDs for primary prevention clinical indications. Hospitals must report data on each primary prevention ICD procedure. The current tool for reporting this data, the ICD Abstraction Tool through Qnet, will no longer accept data beginning April 1, 2006. The American College of Cardiology National Cardiovascular Data Registry's ICD Registry will take the place of the ICD Abstraction Tool. In order to ensure that a complete and timely transition is made, hospitals should contact the ACC-NCDR immediately and should be enrolled with ACC-NCDR by April 1, 2006. Hospitals will need to work with the ACC-NCDR directly in order to participate. Information is available on the ACC-NCDR web site or by telephone at 1-800-253-4636, ext. 451. Click here to download information on reporting requirements from the Medicare National Coverage Determination Manual.
