Anesthesia Business Consultants President and CEO Tony Mira compiled a list of topics that will affect anesthesia practices in 2020.
Five changes to know for the new year:
1. The 2020 Medicare national conversion factor for anesthesia decreased from $22.2730 to $22.2016. The conversion factor for surgical services increased slightly.
2. The codes for intercostal nerve blocks have been amended. Blocking multiple levels in 2020 will require coding both CPT 64420 and CPT 64421.
3. Nerve block codes were also amended to permit steroid injections as part of the code definition.
4. Three nerve block codes were deleted for 2020 and replaced with CPT 64999.
5. Changes to federal documentation standards will allow both physicians and certified registered nurse anesthetists to review and verify notes in a patient's medical record that were made by other team members.
For the full list of 20 updates to know, click here.
More articles on anesthesia:
Pain physician pleads guilty to accepting $140,000 kickbacks from Insys
Cincinnati health system consolidates outpatient cardiology care in $2M renovation project — 3 insights
8 major CMS changes to take effect in 2020