2006 proposed fee schedule - American Society of Clinical Oncology

anesthesia programs that have arranged their practices to
meet the conditions necessary to bill under the revised
policy. The ASA suggests that the teaching physician
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regulations for teaching anesthesiologists should be similar
to those for teaching surgeons for overlapping complex
surgery procedures. The ASA thinks that anesthesia is
similar to complex surgery in terms of critical periods,
overlap, and availability of teaching physicians. However,
the critical portions of the teaching anesthesia service and
the critical portions of the teaching surgeon service are
not the same. The ASA believes that inadequate payment
levels have contributed to the loss of teaching
anesthesiologists and an inability to recruit new faculty.
We are requesting comments on a teaching physician
policy for anesthesiologists that could build on the policy
announced in the November 7, 2003 PFS final rule, but
provide the appropriate revisions that would allow it to be
more flexible for teaching anesthesia programs. We would
also be interested in receiving data and studies relevant to
this issue as well as any offsetting savings that could be
made to account for any potential costs that could be
incurred if there was a policy change.
G. End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Related Provisions
On November 15, 2004, we published the Revisions to
Payment Policies Under the Physician Fee Schedule for