Austria

Sixty-three new procedure codes and other changes were introduced into the service catalog of the LKF model 2020 for the inpatient and outpatient area in Austria.

On March 27, 2020, the BMSGPK release the notes with the rules on diagnosis coding and administrative documentation for COVID-19 in hospitals as part of the project "Performance-based hospital financing (LKF)."

On January 1, 2020, as a part of healthcare reform in Austria, the Austrian health insurance fund (Die Österreichische Gesundheitskasse (ÖGK)) was created by merging the nine former regional health insurance funds. The ÖGK is based in Vienna.

On the 10th of December 2019, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI-HTA) has released a report on the implementation of an HPV screening test for the early detection of cervical cancer in women as a measure of cervical cancer prevention. The recommendations are positive.

On the 2nd of September 2019, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI-HTA) has released a report on guideline recommendations comprising screening for diabetes mellitus.

In August 2019, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI-HTA) published four decision support documents. The assessed technologies are osteochondral allograft transplantation, allograft for anterior and posterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, human dermal allograft, and 177 Lutetium.

In August 2019, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI-HTA) published updated evaluations of medical procedures previously assessed. Technologies that were revised are The Barricaid® device for annulus Fibrosus Repair after lumbar discectomy, single-step scaffold-based treatment (AMIC) and two-step scaffold-based treatment (MACI), radiofrequency denervation and electrical stimulation of the hypoglossal nerve.

Technical overviews include details of application processes for procedure codes and payments (e.g. DRG), inclusion into health benefit catalogs. Overviews are available as presentations in Acrobat PDF.

Seminars on hospital reimbursement system for the Netherlands and Russia were added to the online school, as well as the webinar for the Austrian system. MTRC online school is the most cost-effective way to learn about reimbursement systems in a structured way.

In early May 2019, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI), has published a health technology assessment on robot-assisted surgery in thoracic and visceral indications as part of the EUnetHTA work.

In January 2019, the Austrian HTA body Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI) has published the update of their decision support document (DSD) 103, which concerns the wearable cardioverter-defibrillator (WCD) therapy in primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac arrest in patients at risk. The authors state that further research is necessary for the development of reliable conclusions.

In October 2018, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institue (LBI), published the update on the PET/PET-CT topic. The report was done together with the Berlin Technical University.