ASA and Pain Medicine Societies Urge CMS to Delay Implementation of Severe Cuts for Pain Procedures

In a formal communication to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASA joined seven pain medicine specialty societies in urging the Agency to stop the implementation of steep cuts to physician payments for Interlaminar Epidural procedures (CPT® Codes 62310, 62311, 62318, 62319).  These cuts were announced in the CY 2014 Medicare Physician Payment Rule, which was released on November 27, 2013 and will go into effect on January 1, 2014. 

CMS will reduce payments for these services by up to 58 percent. Due to the timing of the code development and valuation cycle, these severe cuts were not part of the proposed rule so no comment period was provided to stakeholders prior to the release of the final rule.  However, given the magnitude of the cuts, the pain medicine specialty societies argued that "special consideration is warranted" and CMS should delay implementation of the cuts until all comments have been received and reviewed. 

ASA will follow up with a formal comment letter to CMS disagreeing with the severe cuts to Interlaminar Epidural procedures and requesting and providing support for refinement.

Read the multispecialty letter.

Call or Email Your Lawmaker and Ask Them to Halt Severe CMS Cuts for Pain Procedures.