It comes from the ancient Chinese practice of lingchi. “Death by a thousand cuts” is our way of describing a long, slow, gradual process where the culmination of an entire series of misfortunes ultimately ends in ruin. In ancient China, lingchi was a manner of execution reserved only for the most egregious of criminals. Rather than a quick […]
Every year brings something new, especially in the context of healthcare rules and regulations. We’ve already seen the changes the government has planned for anesthesia and pain reimbursement, post-op pain coding, telehealth, and opioid treatment; now it’s time to take a look at what the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has in store […]
On July 10, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule involving Medicare payments under the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), as well as other Medicare Part B issues, effective on or after January 1, 2025. The proposed rule contains new implications for chronic pain providers, which are discussed below. Conversion […]
In the early 1980s, Medicare started reducing payment rates for anesthesia. Over the course of a few years, the disparity between commercial payment rates and Medicare rates continued to grow. This encouraged many practices to focus aggressively on payer contracting as a means of offsetting the impact of declining Medicare rates. For many years, this […]
It has often been said that managing an operating room suite is like sitting on a three-leg stool where hospital administration represents one leg, the surgeons provide the second and anesthesia the third. Ideally, the administration defines the goals and objectives and recruits surgeons who are qualified and eager to produce. The problem is that […]
Astrophysicists had it right. Or so they thought. For decades, they held to certain assumptions about the early formation of the universe; but then came along the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which purportedly allows astronomers to look deeper into the past than what had heretofore been possible. And what the JWST is revealing is […]
“Mother, may I?” was the familiar refrain from an old-school children’s game that required obtaining permission before proceeding forward. If you failed to first ask permission, you were sent back to the starting point. Standing in opposition to this concept is the modern meme that says it’s better to act now and apologize later than […]
The notion of a fair market value (FMV) analysis is very common in real estate. The intent is to determine the price that a reasonable buyer should pay a qualified seller for a property. What does the concept have to do with anesthesia practices? The fact is that CMS guidelines require an FMV to ensure […]
In contrast to medical billing in the main, the submission of anesthesia claims in particular is uniquely intricate because of the multiple ways in which reimbursement is determined—starting with what’s found on the anesthesia record. While every other specialist dictates a narrative report describing the services provided to the patient, the anesthesia provider documents multiple […]
