Congress Urges CMS to Increase Global Surgery Payments

As previously reported, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to adopt a new American Medical Association (AMA) CPT coding structure for office visit codes as well as the AMA/Specialty Society RVS Update Committee-recommended values for these evaluation and management (E/M) codes. However, unlike it has done the past, CMS has said it will not adjust the E/M portion of the global surgery codes to reflect the increased values, citing the agency’s continued work to evaluate the current global surgery code values.

Working with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and other surgical organizations, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) collaborated with members of Congress in calling on CMS to adjust the global surgery codes to reflect the increased E/M values. Spearheaded by Reps. Ami Bera, MD, (D-Calif.) and Larry Bucshon, MD, (R-Ind.) — who have served as our champions on this issue since the global surgery codes first came under threat in 2014 — on Sept. 27, 25 members of Congress sent a letter to CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, urging the agency to increase the global surgery codes. A similar letter from several members of the U.S. Senate will be forthcoming.