October 31, 2008

The Medicare conversion factor (CF) for anesthesia services will increase by nearly 5 percent to $20.92 on January 1, 2009. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the update on October 30, 2008 in its “Final Rule” on the Physician Fee Schedule for 2009.

This is the national average anesthesia CF. Your actual CF depends on your geographic location, which in turn reflects Medicare’s proxy data for differences in cost of living. Your CF will also increase by 4.76 percent. (There is always the theoretical possibility of changes until Congress finishes its work for the year.)

On the other hand, the Medicare CF for all other services, including pain medicine and critical care, will decrease by 5.3 percent, from $38.09 to $36.07. This is because of the “budget neutrality” adjustments required by statute to account for the changes to relative values made in the 2007-2008 five-year adjustment to the Medicare Fee Schedule. Anesthesia services were increased by 34 percent in that adjustment process, thanks to more than a decade’s hard work by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

CMS also announced the following changes to two anesthesia codes. CMS approved recommendations made by the AMA-Specialty Society Relative Value Update Committee (RUC).

New and Revised/Reviewed Anesthesia CPT™ Codes

The Final Rule contains other payment policy changes that ABC staff are currently reviewing for their impact on anesthesiology practices.