Bird’s-eye View of Past Revisions to Anesthesia Fees under the National Medical Insurance System - What is the Anesthesiologist’s Social Standing? -

Abstract

We considered the anesthesiologist’s social standing in view of past revisions of anesthesia fees under the National Medical Insurance System.

Anesthesiologists are evaluated based on the services they provide and the expectations the public has of them. The basic anesthesia fee, namely general anesthesia（L008）, which was valued at 1 in 1986, had greatly increased to 1.74 in 2002.

However, recent harm to the anesthesiology profession, probably attributable to the misbehavior of some anesthesiologists, resulted in a reduction in the basic anesthesia fee from 1.74 to 1.71, with the reduced portion assigned to other specific anesthesia services.

Anesthesiology covers an extremely wide field and involves an extremely heavy responsibility, and to continue meeting the public’s expectations, it is necessary to increase efficiency while ensuring safety. It means that the range of procedures that anesthesiologists should perform and those delegated to assisting staff members should be clearly defined.

Such a system would allow smooth teamwork among medical professionals in the peri-operative team and help the team adapt to future changes.