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Coding issues: We got you covered
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Coding Committee is best known for its work developing CPT (Current Procedural Terminology) codes, recommending physician work relative value units (RVUs) as well as working to address Medicare payment issues. However, the committee also…
Take action to stop projected Medicare surgery cuts
The proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule for 2021 was released Aug. 3 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), revealing vascular and general surgeons face a projected 7% reduction in Medicare payments. The rule includes proposals to…
Vascular surgeons: Avoiding burnout and achieving wellness
Coaching, institutional and cultural changes, advocacy, identifying issues and banding together all can play a part in vascular surgeons’ avoiding burnout and achieving wellness. These were among the themes to come out of Invited Session 6, “Enhancing wellness in times…
Patients with large AAAs see higher five-year mortality with EVAR compared to open repair
Large abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair is associated with higher adjusted five-year mortality, reintervention and rupture rates after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR)—but not after open repair, a prize-winning paper at the recently concluded SVS ONLINE digital conference concluded. Nevertheless, an…
SVS joins Surgical Care Coalition in fight against Medicare cuts
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has joined the Surgical Care Coalition as part of a show of solidarity against pending Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) payment cuts. News of the move was announced in a communique from…
Advocating for our members
COVID-19 has altered almost all of our lives to a degree previously unimaginable. Millions of Americans continue to lose their jobs, hundreds of thousands have contracted the disease and thousands have succumbed to this virus. In hard-hit states such as…
National emergency loosens restrictions on use of telemedicine, says VESS secretary
Performance of telemedicine has been made easier and more accessible after regulations and limitations on its use were waived in the wake of the declaration of a national emergency sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Misty Humphries, MD, secretary…
Persistently high-cost Medicare patients are more likely to be younger, come from an ethnic minority group
Persistently high-cost patients are younger, more likely to be members of racial or ethnic minority groups, eligible for Medicare based on having end-stage renal disease and dually eligible for Medicaid compared to their transiently and never high-cost counterparts, a study…