Anesthesia Coding Alert

Plus: National Medicare CF could drop 27 percent.Get ready to end another year wondering how much your Medicare payments will be reduced in 2012. According to the Physician 2012 Medicare fee schedule Final Rule printed in the Federal Register on Nov. 1, the 2012 national anesthesia conversion factor (ACF) will be $15.5264 unless Congress acts to avoid the cut. An ACF of $15.5264 represents a 26.2 percent decrease from the national ACF in 2011, due to other factors impacting the CF. Remember: Although the national ACF might be $15.5264, you won't automatically use that number when calculating your claim fees. Instead, you'll use the specific ACF that applies to your geographic area, which takes local economic and practice expense factors into account. Example: The national ACF for 2011 is $21.05, but the local ACF for Delaware is $20.75. If you code for physicians in Delaware, you should use $20.75 in [...]