Relationship between anesthesia service use and screening colonoscopy rates

Editor's Note

No significant association was found between anesthesia service use and colonoscopy screening or colorectal cancer screening rates, suggesting that more evidence is needed to support the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule change that defined “screening colonoscopy” to include separately furnished anesthesia services, this study finds.          

The average anesthesia service use rate in colonoscopy significantly increased from 25.34% in 2008 to 44.25% in 2012, but only a moderate increase was found in the rate of guideline concordant colonoscopies.

After adjusting for patient characteristics, there was a nonsignificant negative association between anesthesia service use rate and colonoscopy screening rate. The relationship between anesthesia service use and the overall colorectal cancer screening rate followed the same pattern and also was not statistically significant.

Background: The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently defined "screening colonoscopy" to include separately furnished anesthesia services. Objective: To examine the relationship between anesthesia service use and the uptake of screening colonoscopies.