Interventional pain physician taxonomy code?

[callmeanesthesia]

Received this in ASIPP e-news but I’m not able to find much other information on it, in particular how it affects reimbursement rates. Has anyone dealt with this?

Why You Should Have a Specialty Designation of 09 for Interventional Pain Physicians​

​ Specialty codes are used by CMS for programmatic and claims processing purposes Medicare and commercial payers use the primary specialty designation in processing claims. Physicians in a group of the same specialty must bill and be paid as if they were one physician. Appropriate use of specialty codes helps reduce inappropriate suspensions and improves the quality of utilization data. Physicians should monitor their specialty status to ensure that they are enrolled in the specialty type that most accurately represents their practice. This is particularly important as physicians change the focus of their practice and become more specialized. Failure to notify Medicare of specialty changes can affect reimbursement. If you are performing interventional pain procedures but your primary designation is Anesthesiology (5) or Pain Management (72) this will negatively affect the reimbursement for pain procedures. Interventional pain physicians’ primary designation should be 09 – Interventional Pain Management, a designation that ASIPP fought for and gained to assure more representation and reimbursement. You may check your current specialty designation and/or to change it to Interventional Pain Management (09) on the following CMS website: https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/#/please Before doing so, CLICK HERE for a step-by-step instructional guide created by ASIPP member Dr. Rohit Choudhary to assist members in this process.​

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[callmeanesthesia]

Oh, I think I get it - they want to use the taxonomy code to argue that only interventional pain physicians should be performing interventional pain procedures, thus supporting better reimbursement for a more limited supply of performing physicians. Maybe not saying we will be paid less right now if we bill under another taxonomy.