Medical Student McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston Houston
Disclosure(s):
Reed A. Richter, BS: No financial relationships to disclose
Introduction: There is currently a lack of literature regarding financial trends for procedural reimbursements in cranial neurosurgery. Understanding these trends is important as continued progress is made to discern the current and future financial state of this specialty. The purpose of this study was to evaluate monetary trends in Medicare reimbursement rates for the 20 most commonly performed cranial neurosurgical procedures from 2002 to 2021.
Methods: The Physician Fee Schedule Look-Up Tool from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was queried for each of the top 20 most utilized codes. Then, the percent change in Medicare reimbursement rate for each procedure from 2002 to 2021 was calculated, averaged, and adjusted for inflation. Both average annual and total percent change in reimbursement were calculated. The compound annual growth rate and R-squared was also calculated using the adjusted data.
Results: After adjusting for inflation, the average reimbursement for all procedures included decreased by 11.17%. CPT code 61520 “Craniectomy for Excision of Brain Tumor” had the largest mean decrease (-21.14%), while CPT code 61322 "Decompressive Craniectomy or Craniotomy" had the smallest mean decrease (-0.74%). From 2002 to 2021, the adjusted reimbursement rate for all included procedures decreased by an average of 0.60% each year with an average compound annual growth rate of -0.60%.
Conclusion : After correcting for inflation, Medicare reimbursement for cranial procedures has steadily decreased from 2002 to 2021. It is important that healthcare administrators, policymakers and surgeons understand and consider these trends. Doing so will be important in order to ensure continued access to quality neurosurgical care in the United States.
