Austria

On 20th of July, 2018, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI) has published an assessment of left atrial appendage closure to prevent stroke to determine national coverage of the procedure. Considering this evidence, the authors do not recommend the inclusion in the hospital benefit catalogue, neither for percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion nor for surgical closure using a special clip.

On 20th of July, 2018, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI) released an assessment of the subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator to determine coverage of the service. Authors concluded that evidence is insufficient to make conclusions about the comparative effectiveness of subcutaneous and transvenous ICDs. However, a substantially lower risk for lead complications in patients treated with subcutaneous ICD.

On 20th of July, 2018, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI) has published an HTA report on efficacy and safety of endobronchial valve implantation for emphysema. The authors have concluded that the intervention is more effective but less safe than standard therapy in selected patients with severe emphysema. Inclusion in the national service catalogue is only recommended with restrictions.

On 20th of July, 2018, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI) has published an update of the HTA of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for the treatment of prostate cancer. The report did not find the evidence of benefits of the treatment vs comparative treatments. The inclusion of the method hospital benefit catalogue was currently not recommended.

The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute (LBI-HTA), the Austrian HTA body, develops health technology assessments of medical technologies to support decision-making about coverage of these methods in Austrian public reimbursement system. MTRC summarized the list of reports to be published by LBI-HTA until the end of 2018.

In mid-May 2018, the Basque office for Health Technology Assessment, OSTEBA, has published a rapid assessment report on treating prostate cancer with high-intensity focused ultrasound. The article is published under EUnetHTA framework.

The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute – Health Technology Assessment (LBI-HTA) released seven decision support documents in 2017. In these, three technologies were recommended for inclusion into the national benefit catalogue. The rest was preliminarily not recommended for inclusion. HTA by LBI-HTA have indirect but strong connection to decision making about funding by the Ministry of Health.

The new Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) system, called “LKF system” in Austria came into effect on January 1st 2018. It is used for the reimbursement, documentation and cost data collection of inpatient and day case services in Austrian hospitals. Compared to the last version, the LKF system for 2018 includes two newly established procedure groups (Oncological Immunotherapy and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) as well as several new procedures and changes in the association of procedures to specific groups. See details in the MTRC report.

The Austrian HTA body LBI-HTA performed a systematic review of health economic evaluations of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) compared to medical treatment and surgical aortic valve replacement for inoperable and operable patients with high or moderate surgical risk. The result of the review have only limited transferability to Austria, and LBI-HTA concluded, that the currently applied selection of patients based on clinical parameters can be considered as good practice.

Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs engaged London School of Economics to undertake efficiency review of country’s social insurance system. Policy recommendations presented in the report include harmonisation of benefits (dentistry, non-medical services, medical aids and medical therapeutic devices), the introduction of an agency for quality assurance and modernisation of outpatient care.

Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment (LBI-HTA) released results of a re-evaluation of percutaneous volume reduction of the intervertebral disk with a focus on chemolucleolysis. Based on current evidence, chemonucleolysis was recommended for inclusion into health benefit catalogue in Austria while percutaneous nucleotomy and percutaneous laser disc decompression were currently not recommended.