The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has failed to increase the global surgery codes to reflect increased evaluation and management (E/M) service values implemented in 2021, resulting in additional cuts to surgical care. On Sept. 27, Reps. Ami Bera, MD, (D-Calif.) and Larry Bucshon, MD, (R-Ind.) wrote a letter to CMS calling on the agency to apply the updated E/M values to the global surgery codes. In the letter, the congressmen stressed that adjusting these values is necessary “to ensure that these physicians are compensated the same for providing equivalent services as defined by the Medicare statute.” Each time CMS has revised the office visit E/M codes, the agency has also increased the post-operative E/M values in the global surgery codes. Failing to make these adjustments amounts to an arbitrary, across-the-board devaluation of surgical care.
Click here to read the letter.
