2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule: Updated and Increased Reimbursement for Spine Surgery Procedures

As a result of ISASS’s comprehensive and persuasive comments as well as meeting with CMS after the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule was released, CMS changed their position on the proposed payment cuts for most of the codes and accepted the values recommended by ISASS, the AMA Relative Value Update Committee (RUC), and other societies.

In this rule, there are several spine-specific issues related to arthrodesis and decompression codes that would have significantly reduced payment for these procedures had the proposed values been finalized. While CMS increased its valuation for codes 22630, 22633 and 22634 from the proposed amounts, the finalized values for codes 63052 and 63053 are still less than those recommended by specialty societies and the RUC. ISASS will continue working to address this issue with CMS and the RUC.

To read the ISASS proposed rule comments, see attached.