Anesthesia Coding Alert

Check the updated guidelines if you bill anesthesia services on behalf of a critical access hospital. If you bill anesthesia services on behalf of the provider through a Method II critical access hospital (CAH), your bottom line could improve starting in January 2012. Background: Anesthesiologists who provide services in a Method II CAH (sometimes referred to as CAHs that have elected the "optional" method) have the option of reassigning their billing rights to the CAH. The CAH then submits a bill with revenue code 0963 (Professional fees for anesthesiologist [MD]) to receive pay for anesthesia services. When the service is reported with modifier AA (Anesthesia services performed personally by anesthesiologist), CMS currently calculates pay based on a 20 percent reduction of the fee schedule amount before calculating deductible and coinsurance. Change: CMS transmittal 2268 dated August 1, 2011, removes the 20 percent reduction when calculating payment for these services. The [...]