Anesthesia consultation

Consultations

A consultation for anesthesia performed on the day of or days before a procedure is considered part of the global procedure and is not a separately reimbursable item.

There are two exceptions to the above as outlined below.
— A recipient with chronic intractable pain receives a consult from an anesthesiologist for the chronic intractable pain, or
— A recipient receives a consult from an anesthesiologist to have an anesthesia procedure performed but ends up not receiving the
anesthesia, e.g., the surgery is canceled due to complications.

Post-Operative Pain Management and Epidural Catheters

Surgeons routinely provide necessary post-operative pain management services and are reimbursed for these services through the global surgery fee. The surgeon should manage post-operative pain except under extraordinary circumstances. Procedures involving major intra-abdominal, vascular and orthopedic, and intrathoracic procedures will be covered for post-operative pain management by an anesthesiologist when medically indicated. Postoperative pain management services is not covered by non- physicians.

The definition for post-operative pain management is the management of a recipient’s pain beyond, or separate from, the recovery room or operating room. The separately identifiable physician-recipient encounter and management should occur outside the intraoperative area. A separately identifiable physician-recipient encounter reflecting the prescription of medication, associated monitoring, adjustment(s) of medication, and ongoing assessments for complications should be clearly reflected in the medical record documentation.

No additional payment is allowed for an injection of Duramorph or other analgesic agents as a boost at the end of an anesthesia procedure (using the same catheter used for the epidural or spinal anesthesia) without a separately identifiable physician-recipient encounter including the prescription of medication, associated monitoring, adjustment(s) of medication, and ongoing assessments for complications. However, if there is a separately identifiable physician-recipient encounter on subsequent post-op days, where the physician provides post-operative analgesic orders and manages postoperative analgesic complications, daily management of epidural or subarachnoid drug administration may be billed.

If a recipient receives general anesthesia and consequently requires additional pain control such as an epidural injection or an epidural catheter placement on the same day as the general anesthesia, the single injection or catheter placement will be reimbursed at one-half of the allowable. However, catheter placement and daily management of an epidural catheter is not allowed on the same date of service. When the physician provides a separately identifiable physician-recipient encounter to manage and evaluate the catheter and it is reflected in the medical record, this coverage is satisfactory for a reasonable period of time over the consecutive postoperative days.