ArticleInquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financing
A Blurry Bottom Line: The Economics of Declining Medicare Payment Trends in Ophthalmology Subspecialties, 2003 to 2024.
Article in Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financing. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Ophthalmology is both a procedure driven and high-cost technology intensive area of medicine that commonly treats age related conditions such as cataract and diabetic eye disease which are also some of the most common, high volume, and total dollar billable services in the Medicare program. However, ophthalmologists' payment and financial viability have a delicate financial relationship tied to Medicare reimbursement. This paper examines inflation-adjusted Medicare reimbursement trends across 6 major ophthalmology subspecialties in both facility (eg, inpatient hospital) and non-facility (eg, private practice) settings, and evaluates the contribution of relative value unit (RVU) component values and Medicare conversion factor (CF) to overall payment erosion from 2003 to 2024 using Medicare physician fee schedule data. Ophthalmology-related common procedural terminology (CPT) codes continuously billed to Medicare were classified by 6 major surgical subspecialties: comprehensive, cornea, glaucoma, oculoplastics, pediatric, and retina. Inflation-adjusted Medicare facility (eg, inpatient hospital) and non-facility prices (eg, private practice) were calculated for each CPT code using the Consumer Price Index. Non-facility reimbursement declined more than facility reimbursement across all procedures (-38.9% vs -33.5%,
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.