Anesthesia Provider Pay to Drop 60%

[Screen name]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358281875211014.html

Incredibly, Congress's proposed health-care reform plan risks skimping on anesthesia. According to one of the health-care bills in Congress, H.R. 3200, the public option would reduce reimbursement for anesthesia by over 50%.

How do you think Healthcare Reform is going to effect the field of anesthesia?

From another blog:

I am shocked that no one is commenting on the potential impact of President Obama's Healthcare reform. As many of you may be aware, under the current proposals, payment of Anesthesiolgists and CRNAs will be a Medicare rates which are about 30% the level of private insurance. My state Anesthesiologist association projects that the bottom-line affect for most anesthesiologists will be a 50% cut in reimbursement. It is a foregone conclusion that in order to compete with the government option, private insurers will drop their reimbursement to the same levels as government.

Now Mr. Orzak, President Obama's budget director, states that there will be further 20% cuts in physician reimbursement in the future. This means that an Anesthesiologists or CRNAs income will be cut 60%.

Don't know if this is still active, but this tries to exempt anesthesia from the reform rates. All anesthesia providers can sign...

http://www.theanesthesiablog.com/2009/10/health-care-reform-updated-daily-well.html

[adrianmonk]

i'm still interested in becoming a crna that doesn't really turn me off if the pay is cut. i'm still undecided though becoming a pt has always been in the back of my head

[Aberdeen]

What I would like to see now is how many nursing students will still want to be a nurse if CRNA pay is cut by 50-60%. It seems like 90% of all the other students I encounter all say the same thing, "I'm going to be a CRNA."

[Aberdeen]

What I would like to see now is how many nursing students that will still want to be a nurse if CRNA pay is cut by 50-60%. It seems that 90% of all the other students I encounter all say the same thing, "I'm going to be a CRNA."

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

Interesting article, however the public option was dropped from the final House bill, and is projected to have no chance in the Senate.

[ItsTheDude]

too many in health care have been riding the gravy train too long, welcome to reality.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

it will eventually happen to nursing all around. Face it, the govt cannot pay for more people to be included in the system without slashing costs somewhere. MDs are already facing 20-25% decrease. I am sure hospitals will have to settle for less too, which means all of us will do the same. More patients, less money.

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

Dropping that pay to that amount with the tremendous liability that comes from the job....

I don't see it happening without severe consequences..i.e. people NOT becoming anesthesia providers.

That's soooooo much liability and lawyers go unchecked.

[Screen name]

Everyone should be turned away by this. Pay should not be near the top of any nurses list of "reasons why", however, CRNA school can cost anywhere between 30-60k, before books, rent, child care, food, etc. This kind of cost will need to be addressed by NA schools as well as the upcoming move to doctrate degree- 60k for school to get out and make 70k isn't appealing.

[RN1980]

there nothing wrong with wanting to be paid well for the services you offer. i can tell you with absolute sincereness, if i came in today and my pay was cut by 50% i'd be looking for something else to do.

[RB2000]

Interesting though... I fail to see how this would save money overall. If CRNA's avg income is 150k that would drop the pay down to 60k on avg. Additionally, that would drop anesthesiolgist down to about 135k on avg. I think that there would be a lot less people banging at the doors to do either if this were the case. Who would put themselves through that much more school, hard work, time, sacrifice, and take on more debt to make less money than if you don't. You think people are complaining now. Wait until someone needs an operation and things revert back to the days of a shot of whiskey and a stick in the mouth, because there are no qualified professionals to care for the pt. just my 2cents. : )

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

Pay drop is all speculation. I highly doubt the average CRNA salary is going to drop into 70-80K range. I would speculate that less efficient anesthesia practices such as the ACT practice would go by the wayside 1st if there was a significant drop in reimbursement rates.