Government
Report finds problems with payment for assistants at surgery
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 2, 2004
Medicare should incorporate all payment for assistants at surgery into the hospital inpatient prospective payment system, the General Accounting Office said in a report to Congress. Medicare pays for assistants under the hospital payment system and the physician fee schedule, creating coordination problems.
"Hospital payments for surgical care are not adjusted when an assistant receives payment under the physician fee schedule," the GAO said in the report. "Medicare may be paying too much for some hospital surgical care."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/02/02/gvbf0202.htm.
Copyright © 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
