While a public option in healthcare reform could mean lower prices for consumers and other purchasers, it could also have an impact on physician payments to anesthesiologists. This analysis identified three major impacts that public option proposals could have:

• Significantly reduce payments to anesthesiologists
• Negatively affect the current economics of anesthesia practices
• Increase consolidation of anesthesiology practices among large national anesthesia groups and hospitals

This report was commissioned by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.