Neurosurg Focus
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Patients expect and deserve quality medical care. Physicians, by nature, want what is best for their patients. With the advent of specialty hospitals, physicians can own, run, and control a superior center designed to deliver the highest quality health care. Neurosurgeons who manage their own hospital may set the standards for medical excellence, with patient satisfaction as their primary focus.
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Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) standardizes medical procedure coding for billing and reimbursement. Since adoption of CPT coding as the basis for the Medicare Fee Schedule (MFS) in 1992, CPT coding policies and policy changes have been influenced not only by medical necessity and customary practice, but also increasingly by Medicare payment policies. The MFS created regulatory price control in the United States medical market based on widespread adoption of modified MFS by private payers and benchmark MFS fees governed by federal budget limitations and set annually by government agency (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
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Payment for physician services in the United States is directly tied to the payment system implemented in the Medicare system. The use of a code to categorize medical and surgical services, as well as a relative value system to assess physician services and reimburse them accordingly, is now well established. In light of this, it is important for physicians to possess knowledge of how this coding and reimbursement system was established, how it is updated, what means are available to modify it, and how it is used in practice. The author addresses these issues, offering a primer for the neurosurgeon on the Medicare system as it relates to physician payment.