Anesthesia Coding Alert

The 2001 anesthesia conversion factor (ACF) for Medicare will be $17.83, not $17.26 as previously announced.

The average ACF in 2000 was $17.77, so the latest news represents an increase for physicians rather than a sharp decrease. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) says that the change represents an estimated boost of $1,850 in Medicare fees for the average anesthesia practitioner. Their calculation is based on a hypothetical anesthesiologist who performs 900 12-unit cases per year and bills 30 percent of his fees to Medicare.

All of the revised conversion factors were published in a HCFA Program Memorandum (B-00-76) that was sent to all Medicare carriers in late December. The entire memo is available online and through numerous sources, including the ASAs Web site at www.asahq.org.

The ASA president, Neil Swissman, MD, advises practitioners to copy and distribute the HCFA memo to any of their carriers who are not aware of it.