High-Volume Billing and Reimbursement Trends for Endoscopic Swallowing Studies in the Medicare Population

The aim of this study is to delineate the reimbursement trends in fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing with sensory testing (FEESST) and without sensory testing (FEES) in relation to that of speech-language pathology's (SLP) portion of modified barium swallow studies (MBS), as well as to document the types of providers billing for these procedures. We performed descriptive analyses of the volume of FEES/FEESST and MBS, and total reimbursements data obtained from 2013-2018 Medicare Part B National Summary files. We also utilized the 2017 Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment Data to analyze the higher volume providers (> 10 procedures annually) of either FEES and/or FEESST. From 2003 to 2018, there has been an average, annual increase of approximately 318 FEES/FEESST performed within the Medicare fee-for-service population (R = 0.9505 [95% CI 0.860-0.983]; p < 0.001) covered under Part B (which is largely outpatient coverage). Similarly, there was an increase in Medicare-specific FEES/FEESST reimbursement from $302,840 in 2003 to $1.2 million in 2018 (R = 0.9721 [95% CI 0.920-0.990; p < 0.001]). Prior to 2010, FEESST was performed more frequently than FEES (maximum annual difference of 1174), though from 2010 onward, relatively more annual FEES was performed. From 2003-2018, the reimbursement per procedure increased by $16.79 and $35.36 for FEESST and FEES, respectively, and by $32.84 for the SLP portion of the MBS. Among high-volume FEES/FEESST billers, 65.4% were otolaryngologists and 32.3% were independently billing SLPs. From 2003 to 2018, there has been a significant rise in the number of performed and reimbursed FEES/FEESST. From 2014 onward, compared to SLP-involved MBS, there has been a relative increase in performance of FEES/FEESST.