Anesthesia Base Units
Anesthesia is the administration of a drug or gas to induce partial or complete loss of consciousness. All anesthesia services administered must be billed under the appropriate Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) anesthesia five-digit procedure code plus the appropriate modifier codes: AA, QY, QK, AD, QX, or QZ.
Anesthesia Base Values are code-specific. They represent the amount of the anesthesia pricing calculation that covers the anesthesiologist’s pre-operation consult time with the patient and the anesthesia set-up time in the operating room. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) assigns this value to each anesthesia procedure, reflecting the difficulty of the anesthesia services, including the usual pre-operative care, post-operative care, and evaluation.