Interventional cardiologists expressed concern and frustration over recent changes to healthcare policy and financing in a May 5 report from Medpage Today.
Here are four notes from the report:
1. At the recent Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions 2025 Scientific Sessions in Washington, interventional cardiologists said they were highly concerned about Congress’ consideration of Medicaid cuts on top of proposed cuts to HHS, NIH and CMS.
2. Interventional cardiology, specifically, is a specialty area that would be heavily affected by NIH funding cuts, Srihari Naidu, MD, president of SCAI, told Medpage. “The studies that try to understand what benefits society at large, without the bias [of commercial interests], is done with NIH grants. If you want to know how to make patients better, we need NIH funding,” Dr. Naidu said,
3. Medicaid cuts are particularly concerning to advocates with SCAI, as primary care and prevention efforts are “widely seen as crucial” to addressing the anticipated rise in cardiovascular disease on a population level, according to the report.
4. “We have to advocate, I think, to ensure that the Medicaid cuts don’t happen, because they would disproportionately affect underserved communities,” said Triston Smith, MD, of Trinity Health System in St. Clairsville and Steubenville, Ohio. “It’s a policy that SCAI, [the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association] have to get on board with.”
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