Skip to main content

Joint Replacement Surgery

An overview of market access challenges for joint replacement surgery in European countries

News and Insights

Annex 2 of the EBM catalog will be enriched with further interventional procedures in Germany

On November 20, 2025, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) announced that Annex 2 of the updated German Uniform Evaluation Standard (EBM) catalog, scheduled for publication on January 1, 2026, will be expanded to include additional interventional procedures.

The 2026 final version of the SwissDRG released

On November 28, 2025, the entity managing the DRG system in Switzerland, SwissDRG, published the final (billing) version of the 2026 DRG system. In total, 19 new DRGs related to cardiovascular, ENT, gastrointestinal, neurology and neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, and some other fields were introduced. Also, four new add-on reimbursement categories were added.

November 2025 Med Tech-related health technology assessments from the NIHR in England

In November 2025, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in England released four Med Tech-related assessments in its HTA Journal, which concerned procalcitonin evaluation of antibiotic use in COVID-19 hospitalized patients, comparison of the knee arthroplasty versus joint distraction for osteoarthritis, comparison of surgical approaches for mitral valve repair, as well as comparison of sample types for diagnostics of infected diabetic foot ulcers.