AVLS-AVF Joint Session: Registries, Reimbursement, Outcomes

Improving Wisely: Benchmarking Ablation Overuse

A collaboration using Medicare claims data gave physicians confidential peer comparison reports on ablation frequency, and outlier physicians who performed more than two standard deviations above average reduced procedure rates from 2017 to 2019, producing an estimated 6.3 million dollar Medicare savings.

Reimbursement Pressure and Site of Service Shifts

Analysis of proposed CMS fee schedule cuts found office based venous practices would see roughly a 12 percent reduction versus 5 to 6 percent for vascular surgery broadly, and shifting procedures to hospital outpatient settings would cost Medicare far more while raising patient costs.

Phlebectomy Classification and Registry Data

A joint task force proposed 14 leg zones to better categorize phlebectomy billing, and registry review of 3,600 procedures found most patients had fewer than ten incisions, prompting a mobile app to capture procedure time and location for reimbursement.

Leg Ulcer Registry Findings and Pelvic Pain Research

A venous leg ulcer task force found nearly half of patients with post-thrombotic ulcers were not using compression at presentation, and researchers described plans for a validated outcome measure and a sham controlled trial for pelvic origin chronic pain.