ASA Calls for Senate Action to Fix Medicare Payments

ASA offered reasonable and meaningful solutions in response to a recent Senate Committee on Finance request for information on Medicare payments. ASA solutions include an inflationary adjustment for physician payments and a modest update to the budget neutrality threshold for Medicare payments. The Senate Committee on Finance also accepted ASA responses related to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System and ideas for encouraging anesthesiologists to join Advanced Alternative Payment Models.

Medicare payments to anesthesiologists today are nearly identical to the payments they received 15 years ago. The conversion factor in 2008 was $19.97 and today, that conversion factor stands at just $20.7739. If adjusted for inflation, the purchasing power of payments for anesthesia care are but 71% of where they stood 15 years ago. In comparison to private payers, the Medicare anesthesia conversion factor is less than 30% of typical private insurance conversion factors.

ASA called on Senate committee members to align Medicare physician payments with other sectors of Medicare by adding a mandatory annual inflation update similar to those provided for other health care sectors and government contractors. ASA also called for Senate action to increase the budget-neutrality threshold, set limits on conversion factor variance, and allow CMS to enhance accountability and stability within the physician payment system.

For more information, contact the ASA Quality and Regulatory Affairs Department at [email protected].

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