From student loan repayment support to federal legislation that could support the anesthesia workforce, here are five pieces of good news in the anesthesia space in the last several weeks:
1. A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that would permit rural hospitals to utilize Medicare funding to hire physician anesthesiologists. Currently, rural hospitals can only use Medicare funds to hire certified registered anesthesiologist assistants or nurse anesthetists. The bill would extend the same reasonable cost basis reimbursement under Medicare Part A to physician anesthesiologists at qualifying facilities.
2. Ohio became the 27th state to opt out of Medicare’s physician supervision requirement for certified registered nurse anesthetists. Gov. Mike DeWine notified CMS of the decision in a letter dated July 10. The opt-out follows Ohio House Bill 52, which took effect June 8 and replaced the state’s CRNA “supervision” standard with a collaboration model involving a physician, dentist or podiatrist.
3. Just a few days prior, Vermont became the 26th state to opt out of federal regulations requiring physician supervision of CRNAs, following Gov. Phil Scott’s letter to CMS on July 2.
4. While the anesthesia workforce faces new challenges amid restrictions on federal student loan borrowing and repayment, some hospitals, health systems and medical schools have rolled out their own student loan repayment programs.
In March, Rochester, N.Y.-based Rochester Regional Health launched a student loan-repayment program aimed at that exact gap. Through a partnership with Clasp, the health system is offering eligible certified registered nurse anesthetists up to $180,000 toward their student loans, along with up to $25,000 for surgical technologists and up to $30,000 for radiologic technologists. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health and Columbus-based OhioHealth are both funding loan repayment specifically for CRNAs through Clasp. Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health and UNC Health Appalachian — part of the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health system — have also signed on.
5. While private equity has dominated the anesthesia group space for the last several years, Copractica, a Dallas-based clinically integrated network built specifically for anesthesia, aggregates independent practices under a single tax ID for billing and payer contracting without buying or controlling them. The network includes 11 practices and about 400 providers across Texas, with plans to expand out of state.