From the American Academy of Ophthalmology

Elimination of these payments would have meant at least a 4 percent loss in income from surgeries

The preservation of global surgical payments didn’t get the headlines when Congress eliminated Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula Tuesday, but it was a huge win for medicine in general and ophthalmologists in particular.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services intended to eliminate all 10- and 90-day global surgical payments in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Eliminating global surgical payments would have been particularly detrimental to ophthalmologists because it would have significantly undervalued their surgical work and higher practice expenses.