During an interactive session at Becker's 29th Annual ASC Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, Peter H. Doerner, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer for North American Partners in Anesthesia (NAPA), led a group of ASC healthcare leaders in discussion about the challenges faced by the healthcare industry due to a shortage of anesthesia clinicians.

New York employs the most anesthesiologists of any state. 

The average annual salary for certified nurse anesthetists in the U.S. is $205,770. 

Shawna Alfano, MSN, RN, administrator and director of nursing of Walnut Creek, Calif.-based BASS Surgery Center, joined Becker's to discuss the biggest lesson her team learned this year. 

Anesthesiology specialists are grappling with increasingly stringent payer policies that have led to inconsistent reimbursement when treating chronic pain. As the costs associated with practicing medicine continue to rise and the cut to Medicare reimbursement looms, accurate coding is paramount to physicians' reimbursement. 

The 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule contains thousands of pages of rules for physicians to sift through, with only a portion obtaining to every specialty. 

The license of anesthesiologist Jeffrey Christensen, MD, who has been affiliated with Casper-based Wyoming Surgical Center, has been suspended after an investigation involving  missing fentanyl, K2 Radio reported Dec. 12.

The highest paid anesthesiologist in Atlanta earns $741,000 per year, according to Medscape's salary reporter tool, which is much higher than the mean annual wage of $302,970 anesthesiologists make according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Certified nurse anesthetists make an average of $205,770 annually. 

Florida employs the most certified nurse anesthetists of any state. 

The anesthesia provider shortage has been a plague on ASCs and health systems alike. 

Government officials from Florida, Colorado, Delaware, Missouri and California have all made efforts to topple supervision requirements for certified registered nurse anesthetists.

While demand for anesthesia services has skyrocketed, Medicare reimbursements have shrunk, according to VMG Health's 2023 "Physician Alignment: Tips & Trends" report. 

ASCs were overwhelmed by anesthesiologist shortages and anesthesia price hikes in 2023. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut are calling for U.S. Anesthesia Partners and its private equity partner Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe to answer for what a federal agency called an "anticompetitive scheme." 

Florida lawmakers Rep. Mike Giallombardo and Sen. Blaise Ingoglia are proposing legislation that would eliminate the current requirement for certified registered nurse anesthetists to have a written supervisory agreement with a physician, The Capitolist reported Dec. 4.

Katherine Grichnik, MD, chief of anesthesiology services at SCA Health, has joined the strategic advisory board at healthcare tech-enabled solutions firm Surgical Directions. 

Former Los Angeles-based anesthesiologist Stephen Kyo-Sung Kim, MD, was ordered to be released Dec. 4 following two years in prison in connection with a 2021 guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a fellow physician during surgery, according to a Dec. 4 report from MyNewsLA.

Every year brings several changes in the healthcare industry, and 2024 is shaping up to be no exception. Heading into the new year, anesthesiologists plan to grow their skill sets, expand ASC partnerships and improve payer relations.  

Portland, Ore.-based Providence Portland Medical Center and Providence St. Vincent Medical Center have had to cancel several hundred surgeries amid a shortage of anesthesia providers, The Oregonian reported Nov. 30.