Physician burnout—including burnout among anesthesia providers—remains a serious public health problem, with studies showing prevalence rates of approximately 50 percent. A recent study in the Journal of Internal Medicine calls for a two-pronged blend of individual and organizational solutions, arguing that "addressing physician burnout should be v...

When an anesthesia or pain management service that is usually covered by Medicare or another insurer may not be covered in a given circumstance, practitioners must issue an advance beneficiary notice (ABN) describing the services and informing the patient of their potential financial responsibility if they choose to proceed. Failure to appropriatel...

Within five years, more than half of hospitals will have begun using artificial intelligence, including machine learning, to support clinical care and business functions, a survey has found. We offer current information on the emerging technology's expansion and acceptance in medicine and healthcare, along with insights on potential applications in...

When the ASA Relative Value Guide (RVG) was first developed in the 1970s it established a significant precedent with regard to what services could be billed as incidental to an anesthetic. The guide established the concept of "invasive" as the critical criterion.Arterial artery catheters, known as A-lines; central venous catheters; and Swan-Ganz ca...

SummaryThe proposed rule for the Outpatient Prospective Payment System and the Ambulatory Surgery Center Payment System for 2019 includes proposals to change payment policy for non-opioid postsurgical pain management drugs, expand reimbursement for anesthesia services for some knee surgeries to outpatient settings and remove questions about pain co...