Those in anesthesia are well-versed in the issues currently facing the specialty, including staffing shortages and reimbursement challenges.
Udaya Padakandla, MD, an anesthesiologist at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas and immediate past president of the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists, recently joined Becker’s discuss what he believes is missing from the current conversation around what needs to change in the industry.
Editor’s note: This response has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What do you feel is missing from mainstream conversations about anesthesia in general?
Udaya Padakandla: I feel the main anesthesia related issue that is missing altogether from the mainstream conversation is how low we are paid in relation to the other physician specialties. Starting around 1991-1992, the [resource-based relative value scale] formula introduced by CMS to compensate for anesthesia services has consistently paid the service at about one-third of the levels of other physician specialties. This came to be known as the 33% problem. At the current payment levels this has transformed more into a 25% payment problem. The problems related to anesthesia payment in the current market will not get any better until this fundamental problem is fixed. This is where we need the anesthesiology advocacy forces to concentrate and to sit with the lawmakers and lobby strongly and effectively for more equitable anesthesiology related payments by both CMS and by private insurers.
