News Archive

The Society’s Online Video Library Committee has announced a deadline extension of its Call for “How I Do It” Videos. Take advantage of this extended opportunity to check your video files and upcoming cases. Is there something you would like to share with us? The online submission portal will remain open until Jan 4, 2021, 3PM ET.

ASBrS has launched a new series of webinars designed to provide members the opportunity to hear from industry experts on technologies available for specific procedures and techniques. Our first #ASBrSRoundtable aired on November 5, 2020, and focused on surgical localization techniques, featuring presentations from Elucent Medical, Endomag, Hologic, Mammotome, and Merit Medical. The recording is now accessible.

Effective January 1, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will increase payment levels for standalone office and outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) codes, but will not apply this payment increase to the E/M portion of global surgical payments. Additionally, CMS created a new add-on code that will result in significantly increased spending in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Since the Fee Schedule operates pursuant to “budget neutrality,” the combination of these factors will automatically result in significant decreases to reimbursement for other services, due to a large reduction to the conversion factor. Some surgical specialties will experience double-digit reductions in reimbursement.