Additional Increase in Medicare Anesthesia Conversion Factor Applicable to All 2012 Claims

Through ongoing discussions between ASA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASA has clarified that the previously announced changes to the Medicare anesthesia conversion factor resulted from an error in the original calculations of the CY 2012 Anesthesia Conversion Factor.  CMS has instructed its contractors to update their claims processing files to use the updated locale-specific conversion factors by March 15, 2012.  Claims paid using the originally published conversion factors will not be automatically reprocessed; contractors will reprocess such claims brought to their attention. 

ASA members are highly encouraged to analyze their Medicare claims activity for January 1, 2012 through March 14, 2012.  If increased revenue offsets the administrative costs, they should request reprocessing of Medicare claims for this time frame.

The updated locale - specific conversion factors are all slightly greater than the originally published figures.  The increases range from $0.08 to $0.13 per unit which corresponds to an additional increase of 0.42 percent to 0.59 percent above the originally posted figures for 2012. 

For a locale-specific comparison, click here.

With this revision, the total increase in the unadjusted anesthesia conversion factor from CY 2011 to CY 2012 is 2.0 percent.