The American Society of Anesthesiologists has joined a group of surgical organizations in expressing deep concern with CMS' rejection of a number of the AMA's Resource/ Specialty Society Based Relative Value Scale Update Committee recommendations in the 2011 Medicare physician fee schedule final rule, according to an ASA release.
The joint letter written by the organizations expressed concern about CMS' interim values for physician work for surgical specialty medical services, as published in the final 2011 Medicare physician fee schedule. The letter pointed out that CMS rejected a larger than average number of RUC recommendations for reasons that "are very unclear to us."
The letter praised the RUC process by detailing the rigor taken to establish relative values for physician work and noting CMS' historic acceptance of these recommendations. For example, CMS has historically accepted over 90 percent of the RUC's recommendations but only accepted 71 percent of the recommendations in the 2011 Fee Schedule.
Read the ASA release on the letter to CMS.
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The joint letter written by the organizations expressed concern about CMS' interim values for physician work for surgical specialty medical services, as published in the final 2011 Medicare physician fee schedule. The letter pointed out that CMS rejected a larger than average number of RUC recommendations for reasons that "are very unclear to us."
The letter praised the RUC process by detailing the rigor taken to establish relative values for physician work and noting CMS' historic acceptance of these recommendations. For example, CMS has historically accepted over 90 percent of the RUC's recommendations but only accepted 71 percent of the recommendations in the 2011 Fee Schedule.
Read the ASA release on the letter to CMS.
Related Articles on Anesthesia:
Study: ASRA Guidelines on Epidural Catheter Removal May Be Too Conservative
Washington University School of Medicine Anesthesiologist Dies in Cycling Accident
Anesthesiologist Presence Improves Polyp Detection Rate