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Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released data on services and procedures furnished to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other health care professionals for CY2012. A preliminary review by ASA reveals the following key findings:
• There are 32,641 physician anesthesiologists, 1,856 interventional pain physicians, 30,160 nurse anesthetists, and 881 anesthesiologist assistants with claims data.
• Ranked by Medicare allowed amounts, anesthesiology is among the lowest specialties; interventional pain management is ranked ninth.
• For both nurse anesthetists and physician anesthesiologists, Medicare payment as percent of charges was 15 percent (14.7 percent for anesthesiology, 15.3 percent for nurse anesthetists).
• The data include provider identification information and CPT/HCPCS; they do not include ASA physical status, CPT/HCPCS billing modifiers (to determine personally performed, medical direction, supervision, etc.), or time units.
The new data set has information for over 880,000 distinct health care providers who collectively received $77 billion in Medicare payments in 2012, under the Medicare Part B Fee-For-Service program. The data are drawn from the Physician/Supplier Part B Claims File, also known as the Carrier File, which captures Medicare fee schedule claims that are submitted by physicians and non-physician providers.
ASA is currently undertaking additional review and analysis of the data including an assessment of whether it accurately portrays the unique billing aspects associated with anesthesia care.
