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Medical Innovation

2020 — A Year in Review

By Advocacy Agenda, Congress, Health Reform, Medical Innovation, Medical Liability, Prior AuthorizationNo Comments

While 2020 is a year that most people want to forget, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) made significant strides in accomplishing its legislative and regulatory agenda, thus ensuring that neurosurgical patients continue to have timely access to quality care. Following are some highlights of these advocacy efforts.

Congress Prevents Steep Medicare Cuts

On Jan. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) implemented the new CPT guidelines to report office and outpatient visits based on either medical decision making or physician time. These evaluation and management (E/M) services are valued in line with the AMA/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee (RUC) recommendations. Unfortunately, to comply with Medicare’s budget neutrality requirement, any increases must be offset by corresponding decreases, and CMS estimated that the 2021 policies would increase Medicare spending by approximately $10.6 billion. This necessitated significant cuts for many specialties, including an overall 6-7% payment cut for neurosurgery. Read More

A Year in review: Making Progress on Neurosurgery’s Legislative and Regulatory Agenda

By Advocacy Agenda, Congress, Health Reform, Medical Innovation, Medical Liability, Prior Authorization, UncategorizedNo Comments

As we come to the end of a decade and head into 2020, it is fitting to reflect on the progress that the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) have made in advancing organized neurosurgery’s legislative and regulatory agenda to ensure that neurosurgical patients have timely access to quality care. At the beginning of 2019, we set forth an ambitious agenda, and throughout the year, the AANS and CNS continued to make progress on achieving our health policy goals.

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The FDA and Regulation – Neurosurgery Partners with FDA for Patient Safety, Innovation and Regulatory Reform

By Access to Care, Drugs and Devices, Guest Post, Health, Medical Innovation, Patient Safety, Regulatory ReliefNo Comments

Clemens M. Schirmer, MD, PhD, FAANS, FAHA (left) Vice-Chair, AANS/CNS Communications and Public Relations Committee Geisinger Wilkes Barre, PA Catherine Jeakle Hill (right) Senior Manager for Regulatory Affairs, Washington Office…

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