CY2027 Medicare PFS final rule for interventional radiology (IR), by my quick read: the conversion factor falls 2.31% (non-APM) as the temporary 2.5% boost expires. IR work RVUs are flat, and practice expense gains offset part of it (+1% facility, +4% office). Net for hospital-based IR is roughly -1.3%. SIR has yet to release its analysis.View quoted post on X
cms.gov/newsroom/fact-…
Outpatient / ASC (CMS-1850-FC): ASCs get a 2.3% average update, CMS added 618 procedures to the ASC covered list and pulled 637 off the inpatient-only list, but ASCA says every one of the top 10 ASC procedures by volume gets paid less in 2027. Practically for private practice surgeons to survive: Better own your own ASC or hospital, that’s where the increases are.View quoted post on X
beckersasc.com/asc-news/cms-u…
Physicians keep paying specialty association dues. Apparently, losing requires a subscription.View quoted post on X
Hospital ownership? Gutted. Stark and anti-kickback restrictions? Alive and well. Certificate of Need laws? A handful of individual physicians get to spend their own money fighting for permission to compete.
CMS pays a premium to send patients to the most expensive buildings in town while treating the physician’s professional fee like a clerical error it intends to correct downward.
And when Washington comes for physician ownership in ASCs, I’m sure we’ll get another beautifully formatted statement expressing profound concern.
For decades, physicians have funded executive directors, boards, committees, lobbying teams, and annual trips to Washington. Meanwhile, they’ve lost income, ownership, and autonomy.
Then comes the victory lap: We “mitigated some of the more significant concerns.”
Congratulations. They wanted both kidneys. You negotiated one.
At some point, the people collecting dues need to explain why the people paying them keep losing ground. Access to lawmakers is lovely. A photograph with a senator must be thrilling. Neither pays the overhead.
Imagine a surgeon explaining that the operation failed for the twentieth consecutive year, but the relationships in the operating room have never been stronger.
Please renew your membership.
And here come the “to be fair…” comments.
We are at war.
We are losing big time.
I don’t understand IRs make a living doing just MSK embo. Commerical insurance does not pay the majority of times. Medicare will audit you. I think people are either lying, commuting fraud, subsidized by other services, or charging cash. Per usual, adoption has outpaced data.View quoted post on X
