A CPT Code for Thyroid RFA: Dr. Jon Russell

Today’s guest is Dr. Jonathon Russell. After training at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr Russell trained further at Johns Hopkins before spending almost 10 years there. He became the Chief of Head and Neck Endocrine Surgery at Johns Hopkins and was the director of the Thyroid Tumor Center. During that time, he was the first surgeon to complete transoral robotic surgery for thyroid cancer, led the largest series of transoral surgery in the West, and was the first group of Head and Neck Surgeons to offer RadioFrequency Ablation (RFA). He is the current president of the North American Society of Interventional Thyroidology (NASIT). In 2024, Dr Russell founded the Russell Center for Endocrine Health, where he continues to innovate as he offers each patient a personalized plan of care. Today’s conversation centers around the topic of thyroid RFA and insurance coverage. Specifically, a CPT billing code that has been created by the CMS. For the past 5 years, many patients have been eagerly awaiting the creation of this code so that they could pursue treatment with the benefit of insurance coverage. The new code was just released, but unfortunately, has set the value of reimbursement too low for RFA to be financially sustainable in the outpatient clinic setting. In today’s episode, we’ll discuss what this could mean for the future of thyroid RFA, as well as actionable steps you can take to advocate for the future of this nonsurgical treatment option.