MEDICARE REEVALUATING SPINE SURGERIES AT ASCS (Orthopedics This Week)
Is this the beginning of the end of payments from Medicare for some spine surgeries in ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs)? The agency wants to know what you think.
On July 27, 2018, Medicare announced the agency is reviewing whether seniors should have spine surgery at same-day surgical centers. The agency said it will examine whether such procedures “pose a significant safety risk” to patients and continue to “meet the criteria” for Medicare payment.
USA TODAY-Kaiser Health Investigation
The announcement came five months after a USA TODAY NETWORK-Kaiser Health News (KHN) investigation revealed several patient deaths following the procedures at ACSs.
The article, by Christina Jewett (Kaiser Health News) and Mark Alesia (IndyStar), is titled How a push to cut costs and boost profits at surgery centers led to a trail of death.
KHN reported that the investigation found that Medicare approved same-day spine procedures for seniors in 2015 and 2017, "even though at least 14 patients had died since 2008 after such procedures." No data was supplied to show whether that number of deaths was statistically irregular nor whe...
