This past Friday, CRNAs across the country earned a significant win! The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) decided to recognize CRNA’s ability to perform pre-anesthetic assessments in Ambulatory Surgical Centers as part of the final rule of the Physician Fee Schedule. The final rule also recognizes Medicare Part B payment to CRNAs for evaluation and management services as defined by a state’s scope of practice.
Our voices continue to be heard! At the AANA’s request, more than 3,600 comments from CRNAs across the country were sent to CMS in support of these rule changes. The American Society of Anesthesiologists and others who worked against the proposed rule changes failed in their efforts. The CMS sided with CRNAs to bring high-quality, safe anesthesia care to all patients across the United States.
To show how your advocacy made a difference, here’s an excerpt from the preamble of the rule:
“The comments addressing the proposed regulatory change to allow either a physician or an anesthetist to examine the patient immediately before surgery to evaluate the risk of anesthesia and of the procedure to be performed were split between support and opposition. However, the majority of commenters supported the change to allow anesthetists, in addition to physicians, to evaluate patients before surgery for anesthesia risk.”
View AANA’s news release here. Send the release to your hometown media outlets and share the good news on your social media channels. If you have any questions about the rule changes, please contact us at info@aanadc.com or (202) 484-8400.
Thank you for all you do for patients and our profession!
Kate and Randy
(Information provided by AANA)
