Surgeons Launch Campaign to Prevent Steep Medicare Cuts

Neurosurgeons are facing steep Medicare and other payment cuts in the next 24 to 30 months. In the near term, changes in the office and outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) codes adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will reduce Medicare payments to neurosurgeons by as much as 6% starting Jan. 1, 2021. CMS may also propose double-digit cuts in global surgery payments sometime in the future.

These past months have been an incredibly trying time for every single American. Our country’s health care professionals who continue to fight on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic have had to shoulder a greater share of the burden. Given the current situation and the role surgeons play in it, now is not the time to place further strains on the health care system with steep and unsustainable reimbursement cuts.

Coming together to combat this threat, and protect and defend the interests of surgeons around the country, national surgical organizations, including the AANS and the CNS, have formed the Surgical Care Coalition. The coalition has coalesced around a comprehensive, multi-faceted campaign to educate the public and policymakers about the value of surgeons, and to prevent significant reimbursement cuts.

While the coalition has engaged experts in a variety of areas to assist with this effort, in the coming weeks and months, neurosurgeons will also be asked to take action in support of this campaign. Whether it is responding to surveys, writing elected officials or penning an OpEd, active participation in this campaign is imperative and crucial to its success. Stay tuned for more information.