Medicare announced on March 1, 2019, that 800 hospitals will be paid less by Medicare this year because of high rates of infections and patient injuries. The number is the highest since the federal government five years ago launched the Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC) Reduction Program, created by the Affordable Care Act. This year, 110...

The FDA Food and Drug Administration announced a sweeping plan on March 8, 2019, to review and address the safety of surgical staplers. In a letter sent to health-care providers Friday, the FDA said it will convene an advisory meeting on the safety of the devices and signaled that it might reclassify surgical staplers to put them...

A recent convening of Alabama BCBS’ Medical Policy Group proposed a positive change to their policy on Minimally Invasive SI Joint Surgery to establish MIS SIJ fusion as medically necessary using an FDA-approved device (not specific to any one device type) when all of the following criteria are met: Pain is at least 5 on a 0 to 10...

ISASS Coding and Reimbursement Task Force Chair Dr. Morgan Lorio participated in a meeting with officials from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to discuss reimbursement of minimally invasive spine surgery procedures in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. The meeting occurred March 19, 2019, and was focused on the undervaluation of spine surgical procedures...