FEDERAL | ASPS Asks Sec. Price to Delay Global Surgery Data Capture
In a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ASPS joined twenty-two specialty societies to express significant concerns with the Agency's plan to require data collection on care provided during the global surgery period. Section 523 of MACRA required CMS to review the current valuation of surgical CPT codes, focusing on care provided during the post-operative period. The Agency has indicated it will roll-out a three-phase data collection process, but no detailed plan has been provided as of yet. Phase 1 requires physicians to report post-operative visits with CPT code 99024, effective July 1, 2017.
The group of physician organizations, who collectively form the Surgical Coalition, is extremely concerned that the lack of provider education prior to the launch of Phase 1 will prohibit adequate data collection. For this reason, both groups have asked the Agency to re-consider the start date of this program. Additionally, the letter asks CMS to make public their plans for additional data collection and how they propose to perform direct observation in surgical offices.