Medicare program; definition of surgical services--HCFA. Notice of definition of surgical services for physician volume performance standard rates for increase with comment.
This notice announces the definition of surgical services for purposes of the performance standard rates of increase for expenditures and volume of physician services and the appropriate fee schedule updates under the Medicare Supplementary Medical Insurance (Part B) program as required by section 6102 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 (Pub. L. 101-239). Surgical services are defined as follows: All services currently classified as type of service "surgery" in the Medicare payment record that are performed by surgical specialists, including podiatrists and oral surgeons. All services currently classified as type of service "assistant at surgery" in Medicare payment records. This definition includes procedures recognized in the surgical section of Current Procedural Terminology published by the American Medical Association and certain other invasive procedures. This definition would not lead to payment differentials by physician specialty. Any differential in annual updates because of separate performance standard rates would be procedure-specific without regard to specialty.
D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D007357:Insurance, Physician Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006278:Medicare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D015442:Medicare Assignment / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D015895:Relative Value Scales; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States