Economic Toolkit and Member Valuation for Office-Based Anesthesia Practice Expenses

Timely Topic from the OBA-PE Subcommittee of the ASA Committee on Economics.

Market forces are pushing both patients and surgical professionals to relocate certain surgical procedures to the office. Accordingly, an increasing number of both established anesthesiology groups and independent physicians may explore Office Based anesthesiology practice opportunities to satisfy the growing market demand. However, the revenue available to anesthesiologists must be sufficient to maintain both quality and safety in this setting.

The professional fees for anesthetic services (CPT 00100-00199) do not include the non-anesthesia clinical labor, equipment, nor the disposable supplies needed to provide anesthesia care.  In the present economic environment mobile anesthesia practices may not be able to absorb the material costs associated with their clinical operations.

The ASA is providing a downloadable toolkit to assist interested members in estimating the potential costs associated with an Office Based anesthetic practice - medical equipment, consumable supplies, and clinical ancillary labor. Templates grouped by anesthetic technique allow members to model the overhead costs required to deliver care in these alternative locations.

This proposed framework for anesthesiology-related practice expenses draws loosely from the current Medicare RVRBS system. It is hope that leveraging this well-established and validated structure will lend credibility when negotiating with insurers or self-payors.