Introduction

Welcome to the APSA Practice Committee webpage in PedSurgResouce, a section of the Pediatric Surgery NaT.

Our goal here is to provide tools to aid the practicing pediatric surgeon. These include:

• education on current coding/reimbursement issues and policies,
• supplemental information on current practice patterns and standards, and
• materials to support negotiations with partners, managers, and hospital administration

Mission

The APSA Practice Committee exists to monitor the practice of pediatric surgery in North America, report trends in practice patterns and offer guidance to APSA members for improvements and optimization of care delivery.

This committee will analyze various trends in the organization and delivery of pediatric surgical care, as well as changes in private/government reimbursement methodologies and other financial factors which influence the viability of pediatric surgical practices, in order to ensure the successful long term delivery of high-quality surgical care to our patients.

In order to accomplish this, the APSA Practice Committee will

• Work to assure adequate representation and participation of APSA on national committees regarding reimbursement issues, including the RUC (Resource Based-Relative Value Scale Update Committee) and the CPT Advisory Committee
• Offer education and assistance to the membership about issues involving billing, coding, office/practice management and hospital contracting
• Encourage integration of varied pediatric surgery practice models into APSA, including academic, traditional “private practice,” hospital-employed, multispecialty group practice, armed forces, locum tenens, and others
• Work with the APSA Workforce Committee to analyze the supply and demand of pediatric surgeons and the impact they may have on care
• Develop practice documents, including management guidelines, which may enable members to interact more successfully with patients, families, colleagues, and payers through the use of standardized preoperative workups and indications for surgery

APSA Committee Page

Resources

Billing/Coding

• Optimizing Successful Reimbursement of Notoriously Difficult-to-Code Procedures
  • APSAsode - Practice Committee (9/29/2021)
• Review of the RUC - A Primer for Pediatric Surgeons - Richard Weiss
• 21st Century Cures Act: Information Blocking and Implications for Pediatric Surgery
  • Webinar: Mauricio "Tony" Escobar & Stephanie Chao
  • Presentation slides
• 2021 Office/Outpatient E/M Visit Coding Changes : American College of Surgeons
  • Webinar link: https://www.facs.org/advocacy/practmanagement/em-education/webinars
• 2023 CPT Coding Update: Anterior Abdominal Hernia Repair : American College of Surgeons
• Coding Hotline: American College of Surgeons

Publications

• Cost Effectiveness in Pediatric Surgery: Recent Developments in the Field
  
  • Short paper, author J. Duncan Phillips
• When a State’s Medicaid Doesn’t Support Pediatric Surgeons: The impact of legislative advocacy in achieving common goals
  
  • Short paper, author Nicholas Fiore, edited by David Notrica
• Operating Room Efficiency, Seminars in Pediatric Surgery 2018[1]
  • Summary review, author Mauricio "Tony" Escobar

E-Learning

• Getting Paid for Your Value – How to Get What You are Worth in Our Current Treacherous Environment - Practice Committee Panel, APSA 50th Annual Meeting, May 2019
  
  • Overview of Current State of Physician Payment: How to Value Value? - Barry Newman
  • Negotiating as If Your Livelihood Depends on It - J Duncan Phillips
  • Three Practicing Pediatric Surgeons - How They Made This Work in Differing Practice Situations
    • Marcene McVay Gillam - Employed Pediatric Surgeon, Academic
    • Ravindra K. Vegunta – Employed Pediatric Surgeon, Non-academic
    • Ala Stanford – Employed Pediatric Surgeon, Private Practice (Video link presentation, starts at 55:44)
• American College of Surgeons Primers - Resources for the Practicing Surgeon
  • Volume 1 - The Employed Surgeon
  • Volume 2 - The Private Practice Surgeon
  • Volume 3 - Contracting with Private Payors
  • Surgeons as Institutional Employees: A Strategic Look at the Dimensions of Surgeons as Employees of Hospitals

References