Physician fee schedule CMS to leave anesthesia for GI endoscopy as is, debuts new codes

Anesthesia providers who were waiting to hear the fate of payment for upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy services (00740 and 00810) can breathe a sigh of relief, but should still comment on the valuation of the code. In the 2016 physician fee schedule, CMS announced it intended to identify both codes as potentially misvalued. It has stepped back from that decision: “We agree that it is premature to propose any changes to the valuation of CPT codes 00740 and 00810, but continue to believe that these services are potentially misvalued and look forward to receiving input from interested parties and specialty societies for consideration during future notice and comment rulemaking.”