From time to time on Neurosurgery Blog, you will see us cross-posting or linking to items from other places when we believe they hit the mark on an issue. Today’s post originally appeared in The American Spectator on April 29, 2021. In the op-ed, Richard Menger, MD, MPA, assistant professor of neurosurgery and political science at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Ala. discusses the recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announcement to begin prior authorization for specific procedures, including spine surgery, starting July 1. Insurance companies currently use prior authorization to limit the services they provide for their customers. Read More
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
Our health care system is under extraordinary pressure. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an uncertain financial future for health care professionals. And now, coming on the heels of this devastating pandemic, Medicare is poised to implement drastic cuts. These cuts threaten patients’ access to timely surgical care and may impact the quality of life for the people neurosurgeons care for every day. To help policymakers and the public understand how these payment cuts will hurt patients and their neurosurgical care teams, on June 18, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), along with 10 other national surgical associations, officially launched the Surgical Care Coalition (SCC). Read More
Guest post from Linda W. Xu, MD Neurosurgical Resident, Stanford University Hospital and Clinics Palo Alto, CA Online ratings fill the Internet, and it is almost impossible to avoid them….
Guest post written on behalf of The CSNS Neurosurgical Societies ACA Task Force Guest post from Elyne N. Kahn, M.D., M.P.H. Neurosurgery Resident, University of Michigan Health System Alternative payment…
Earlier this month, the AANS and CNS submitted several comment letters to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding a number of issues contained in the proposed 2014…
Last week, The Alliance of Specialty Medicine (a coalition of 13 physician specialty societies) issued a statement on provisions specific to the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VBPM) as described in the recently…