<p>Anesthesiology is indeed a procedure based practice. </p>
<p>Don't, however, get the idea that an anesthesiologist bills for each injection given during the conduct of an anesthetic. Compensation for anesthesia for surgery has a fixed component, based on the complexity of the surgical procedure, and a time based component. (Other modifying circumstances may apply and have bearing on fees).</p>
<p>Anesthesiologists practicing pain medicine bill very much like surgeons performing minor surgery in the office: there are billing codes and fees for evaluation (varying according to complexity), other codes for follow up visits, and still more codes for procedures.</p>
<p>Third party compensation in medicine is neither rational nor the result of coherent planning: the current scheme reflects historical facts, quirks, biases and the relative effectiveness of various physician lobbies.</p>
<p>You can see the Medicare fee schedule at the CMS site: <a href="http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PhysicianFeeSched/downloads/rvu07a2.zip%5B/url%5D">http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PhysicianFeeSched/downloads/rvu07a2.zip</a>
(word file rvupuf07 explains the file format)
(text file pprrvu07 lists the relative value units of each procedure)
Medicare professional fees are calculated as RVU<em>Conversion factor</em>geographic adjustment factor.</p>