This concept is as absurd as it sounds.
Anesthesiologists already have ample experience with claims-editing software.
This change came to the ASA Washington Office's attention only after HCFA had ordered the correction to the epidural edits, and it was therefore not part of the negotiations that led to the November 12 carrier memorandum. Discussions with the HCFA staff responsible for making and unmaking both of these changes, however, have produced a promise that the CCI software will once again be fixed. The ASA Committee on Economics and Washington Office staff will be analyzing the proposed changes and will keep members posted. HCFA has announced its intention to begin implementation, through the Medicare carriers, of 500 new code pairs on October 1. As of August 17, however, HCFA was still in negotiations with the software vendor, so the deadline may pass without action.