Innovation funding

MTRC has developed reimbursement overviews for 14 EU countries. Overviews cover stakeholders, money flow, payment model, DRG system, innovation funding, coverage with evidence development, the role of health technology assessment, funding frameworks and reimbursement pathways. Reports are delivered in PowerPoint. Video explanations are available as well.

NHS England will fast track clinical trials and improve access for patients. As a result, patients will benefit from quicker access to clinical trials and the NHS will become a more attractive place to undertake research.

NHS England has announced the selected technology for the central funding to accelerate access within NHS. These technologies include HeartFlow, Plus Sutures, Endocuff Vision and SecurAcath. This is the second year selection of the technology for the fast track innovation payment scheme in England.

In January 2018, the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) has published the List of the requests for innovation funding (NUB). Out of 705 requests for drugs and technologies, 171 (24%) received the positive status 1, and 72 of them were the requests for the medical technologies.

This report calls for new approaches to scalling tried and tested health care innovations. It highlights the need to create the right conditions to spread this successfully across the NHS.

Shockwave Medical, the manufacturer of the Coronary Lithoplasty® System for the treatment of calcified coronary artery stenosis, requested a consultation by the Joint Federal Committee (G-BA) to find out whether their device requires an early benefit assessment according to §137h of the Social Code Book V (SGB V). The G-BA decided that the technology is highly invasive and innovative and therefore will need to undergo benefit assessment to be granted innovation funding.

A manufacturer (PQ Bypass) requested a consultation by the Joint Federal Committee (G-BA) about the eligibility of their medical device for an early benefit assessment according to §137h of the Social Code Book V (SGB V). The technology (PQ Bypass Stent Graft System) is a fully-percutaneous femoral-popliteal bypass procedure for peripheral arterial disease. The G-BA argued that the method is not based on the use of a high-risk medical device and therefore does not have to undergo a §137h assessment.

Ministry of Health will close applications for proposals for inclusion of novel innovative tests into the List of Acts Outside Nomenclature in 2018 (Référentiel des actes Innovants Hors Nomenclatures, RIHN) 3rd of October 2017. RIHN provides early reimbursement for innovative tests, for which value is not yet validated to allow enlisting in the NABM Nomenclature.

In the Netherlands, there is a possibility to test novel ways of delivering health care services (e.g. mobile diagnostic modules, online counselling, telemonitoring, screening/diagnostic for some complex conditions in primary care etc.) by establishing short (3 years) experiments between health provider and insurance company. After completion of experiment, analysis shall be performed about effect of the intervention. If it works, a new model can be population as novel type of care service in broader settings. See full list of ongoing small-scale experiment projects, extracted by MTRC.

Cédric Carbonneil from the Ministry of Health published a letter in Value in Health in response to the article "New French Coverage with Evidence Development for Innovative Medical Devices: Improvements and Unresolved Issues" published in January 2016. Dr Carbonneil offers an interesting insights into background, rationale and direction of development of this important coverage with evidence development program for medical devices, in-vitro diagnostics and medical procedures in France.