On June 18, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), along with 10 other national surgical associations, officially launched the Surgical Care Coalition (SCC).

Neurosurgeons are facing steep Medicare and other payment cuts in the next 24 to 30 months. In the near term, changes in the office and outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) codes adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will reduce Medicare payments to neurosurgeons by as much as 6% starting Jan. 1, 2021. CMS may also propose double-digit cuts in global surgery payments sometime in the future.