Introduction: In recent years, Medicare physician reimbursement has been a target for national healthcare spending adjustments, but detailed national and location-specific trends in urologic oncology are lacking. This study investigated reimbursement trends over the past two decades.
Methods: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Physician Fee Schedule Look-Up Tool was used to extract physician reimbursement data for urologic oncology procedures from 2002 to 2024. We analyzed 20 common or relevant urologic oncology CPT codes. Reimbursement data were recorded biennially and inflation-adjusted to 2024 United States Dollars. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the study period was calculated for each procedure. Location-specific reimbursement trends were analyzed for robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP, CPT 55866) in all available Medicare localities (n=89).
Results: Reimbursement data for the 20 procedures were retrieved with an average inflation-adjusted percent change of -41.08% from 2002-2024. For all procedures, the 2014-2024 CAGR indicated a faster rate of decline compared to the 2002-2014 CAGR. RARP showed the most significant inflation-adjusted decline. Kidney procedures experienced an average inflation-adjusted CAGR of -2.15%, bladder -2.49%, prostate -2.53%, and testicular -2.34%. Open surgeries averaged a CAGR of -2.32%, endoscopic -2.60% and laparoscopic/robotic -2.73%. Reimbursement for RARP declined across all 89 Medicare localities from 2014-2024, with slight variability in magnitude.
Conclusion: Inflation-adjusted Medicare physician reimbursement has been declining for all urologic oncology procedures over the past two decades, with more substantial declines noted in recent years. As key stakeholders, urologists must remain active in policy decisions pertaining to physician reimbursement.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/UPJ.0000000000000795 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Cirrhosis and liver disease vs. adverse in-hospital outcomes after radical prostatectomy.
Urol Oncol
March 2025
Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, Division of Urology, University of Montréal Health Center, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Introduction: Radical prostatectomy (RP) may be a treatment option for prostate cancer patients with cirrhosis and liver disease (CLD). However, the effect of CLD on adverse in-hospital outcomes after RP has not been well described.
Methods: Descriptive analyses, propensity score matching (PSM), and multivariable logistic and Poisson regression models were used to address National Inpatient Sample RP patients between 2005 and 2019.
Nomogram predicting the outcome of salvage radiation therapy for prostate-specific antigen failure following radical prostatectomy: an exploratory analysis of a randomized, multicenter, open-label, phase 3 trial (JCOG0401).
Int J Clin Oncol
March 2025
Department of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa 1750-1, Ikenobe, Miki-Cho, Kita-Gun, Kagawa, 761-0793, Japan.
Background: We have demonstrated that patients with prostate-specific antigen failure following radical prostatectomy benefit from salvage radiation therapy prior to salvage hormone therapy in a multicenter, randomized, open-label, phase 3 trial (JCOG0401). This study aimed to develop a nomogram to predict the efficacy of salvage radiation therapy in patients with prostate-specific antigen failure following radical prostatectomy.
Methods: This exploratory study focused on the salvage radiation therapy arm of the JCOG0401 trial and explored clinical factors that were significantly associated with the time to treatment failure of salvage radiation therapy using univariable and multivariable analyses.
Contemporary outcomes for robotic radical cystectomy and intracorporeal neobladder urinary diversion.
Urol Oncol
March 2025
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Urology, New York, NY; Karolinska University Hospital, Dept. of Pelvic Cancer, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address:
Introduction: Widespread adoption of robotic-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) with totally intracorporeal neobladder urinary diversion (UD) has not been achieved, and there is a dearth of literature exploring its short-term and long-term safety. We aim to present perioperative, complications, and oncologic outcomes for this procedure.
Materials And Methods: Data from patients who underwent RARC with intracorporeal neobladder UD for bladder cancer between 2003 and 2022 from our multi-institutional cohort was prospectively collected.
Molecular testing in urinary cytology specimens: Current status and future directions.
Urol Oncol
March 2025
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Department of Surgery (Urology), Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School, the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University and Brown University Health, Providence, RI.
Bladder cancer is a common type of urological cancer with high recurrence and mortality rates. Currently, it is diagnosed and monitored using minimal invasive cystoscopies and biopsies. Urinary cytology, the most widely accepted noninvasive and more economic urinary diagnosis method, aims to detect high grade urothelial carcinoma with a high specificity but low sensitivity, especially for detecting low-grade tumors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To examine a large national sample of surgeons to determine if ABU certification status correlated with improved postoperative outcomes for certain procedures in urologic oncology.
Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of all patients aged 65 and over having radical prostatectomy (RP), radical cystectomy (RC), and radical or partial nephrectomy (RPN) from 2015-2021 using the Medicare database. Our main exposure was ABU certification of the surgeon at the time of the index procedure.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!