TOPLINE:

An analysis of US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data from 2015 to 2020 showed a steady rise in the number of physicians performing Mohs surgery, but distribution remained uneven.

METHODOLOGY:

• To evaluate Mohs surgery workforce trends and geographical distribution patterns, researchers analyzed Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code 17311, which corresponds to Mohs micrographic surgery, from the CMS database between 2015 and 2020.
• Unique National Provider Identifiers, practice locations, beneficiaries, and service numbers were extracted and mapped by county.
• US Census Bureau data were used to correlate workforce and population distribution.

TAKEAWAY:

• The number of Mohs surgeons increased steadily from 2322 in 2015 to 2700 in 2020, with an average annual increase of 75.6 providers.
• The total number of times that CPT code 17311 was used increased from 672,226 in 2015 to 816,455 in 2019 (average annual growth rate, 4.7%), before declining by 8.4% from 2019 to 753,489 in 2020; 45% of the providers billed less than 200 times per year through CMS, “suggesting a potential for flexibility in case of surge in demand,” the authors wrote.
• Surgeon migration correlated with geographical distribution of the population but not with population growth, underscoring the “difficulty for Mohs surgeons to relocate in response to changing population densities.”
• Geographic distribution remained stable, with 64% of counties maintaining the same number of Mohs surgeons from 2015 to 2020 and 89.1% reporting an increase or decrease of only one surgeon. Many counties had none to less than one Mohs surgeon per 100,000 residents.

IN PRACTICE:

“This study offers future projection of the MMS [Mohs micrographic surgery] workforce in the United States and demonstrates how the geographical distribution of the workforce has changed from 2015 to 2020,” the authors wrote. “Leadership,” they added, “should continue to maintain an adequate number of MSDO [Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Oncology] fellowship positions and Mohs surgeons should consider career objectives and account for geographical variations when contemplating employment prospects.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Ji Won Ahn, MD, of the Department of Mohs Surgery at the Permanente Medical Group, Walnut Creek, California, and was published online on October 13 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

The CMS database only includes original Medicare patients, which might underestimate the providers who do not perform services for this population.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was supported by the Algin Garrett, MD Professorship Endowment. The authors reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.