Endoscopic procedures

In mid-August 2021, the Finnish Coordinating Center for Health Technology Assessment announced the release of the four accomplished rapid hospital assessments (HTA) performed by the Helsinki University Hospital. The accomplished rapid HTAs concern the cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, and endoscopy technology groups.

On August 16, 2021, the preliminary version of OPS 2022 was published. Numerous content updates and new procedure codes concern chapters 5 “Operations” and 8 “Non-operative therapeutic measures”. Also, minor changes were made in chapters 1, “Diagnostic measures” and 3, “Diagnostic imaging”.New codes were introduced in the peripheral vascular, cardiovascular, nephrology and urology, endoscopy, gastroenterology, otorhinolaryngology, interventional radiology, orthopedics, pulmonary and airways, and other fields of care.

On July 30, 2021, the Swiss Federal Statistics Office (UFS) published the 2022 version of the procedure code (CHOP) nomenclature in the German language. The newly introduced codes concern various technology groups, such as cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurology, interventional radiology, orthopedics, gynecology, and others.

In mid-June 2021, the document "Changes and innovations in the 2022 LKF model" (Änderungen und Neuerungen in den LKF-Modellen 2022) was published. The document summarizes the most significant changes and innovations in the LKF model for inpatient and outpatient care. The newly added procedure codes concern mainly the cardiovascular, e-Health, and gastrointestinal area.

For the first time in three years, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) received data within the framework of the early benefit assessment of new examination and treatment methods (NUB) with high-risk medical devices according to §137h of Social Code Book (SGB) V. This involves seven invasive therapeutic cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, gastrointestinal, and urological procedures.

The Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) updates the Health Care Classification System (Sundheds-væsenets Klassifikations System, SKS) quarterly. It publishes the results on its website two weeks before the implementation, while the files with the changes are sent to the hospital systems. Most of the newly introduced procedure codes concern the gastrointestinal field.

In late September 2020, the Austrian version of the DRG system (LKF) 2021 model with the relevant supplementary documents was published in Austria. For 2021, the main changes include the addition of sixteen new procedure codes and the introduction of two new procedure codes for billing in the day-case settings, update of cases flat rates, and adjustments of the cases daily component calculation.

In mid-August 2020, the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) published the preliminary 2021 version of OPS procedure coding nomenclature. Numerous content updates and new procedure codes inclusion concern the chapters 1 “Diagnostic measures,” 5 “Operations,” and 8 “Non-operative therapeutic measures.” The list of new endoscopy-related procedure codes added under the respective OPS sub-chapters of chapters 1 and 5 is provided below:

The revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog came into force on July 1, 2020. MTRC has compiled the selection of the most significant changes.

The German Society for Neurology (DGN) has released a new version of the S1 guideline "Diagnostics and therapy of neurogenic bladder disorders." It is valid until January 2025.

The report presents a summary of the reimbursement situation for a number of therapeutic endoscopic procedures on esophagus in Europe, including: endoscopic mucosal resection of lesion of esophagus; endoscopic submucosal resection of lesion of esophagus; endoscopic radiofrequency ablation of lesion of esophagus; endoscopic injection sclerotherapy to varices of esophagus; endoscopic balloon dilation of esophagus; endoscopic insertion of stent into esophagus. The analysis covers procedure coding, payment mechanism, reimbursement tariffs and policy restrictions in 11 EU countries including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. It is also possible to add analysis in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Turkey.

MTRC has developed three reports on the key market access topics, including innovation funding, health technology assessment and funding frameworks for medical devices. These reports help to understand the relevance of these frameworks to certain types of medical technologies, including endoscopy technologies. This post provides some key facts about the HTA, funding and innovation payment landscape for endoscopy devices in Europe.