Medicare's "Global" terrorism: where is the pay for performance?
BACKGROUND
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) payment policies for surgical operations are based on a global package concept. CMS' physician fee schedule splits the global package into preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative components of each procedure. We hypothesized that these global package component valuations were often lower than comparable evaluation and management (E&M) services and that billing for E&M services instead of the operation could often be more profitable.


METHODS
Our billing database and Trauma Registry were queried for the operative procedures and hospital lengths of stay for trauma patients during the past 5 years. Determinations of preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative payments were calculated for 10-day and 90-day global packages, comparing them to CMS payments for comparable E&M codes.


RESULTS
Of 90-day and 10-day Current Procedural Terminology codes, 88% and 100%, respectively, do not pay for the comprehensive history and physical that trauma patients usually receive, whereas 41% and 98%, respectively, do not even meet payment levels for a simple history and physical. Of 90-day global package procedures, 70% would have generated more revenue had comprehensive daily visits been billed instead of the operation ($3,057,500 vs. $1,658,058). For 10-day global package procedures, 56% would have generated more revenue with merely problem-focused daily visits instead of the operation ($161,855 vs. $156,318).


CONCLUSIONS
Medicare's global surgical package underpays E&M services in trauma patients. In most cases, trauma surgeons would fare better by not billing for operations to receive higher reimbursement for E&M services that are considered "bundled" in the global package payment.
Reed
R Lawrence
RL
Division of Trauma, Critical Care, and Burns, Department of Surgery, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois, USA. rreed@lumc.edu
Luchette
Fred A
FA
Esposito
Thomas J
TJ
Pyrz
Karen
K
Gamelli
Richard L
RL
D039702:Current Procedural Terminology; D013502:General Surgery / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; D006278:Medicare; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive; D015895:Relative Value Scales; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000601:surgery