Medical procedures

On December 19, 2025, an order was issued registering the Symplicity Spyral renal denervation catheter in Title V of the List of Reimbursable Products and Services (LPPR), enabling add-on reimbursement for medical devices used in hospital settings. The Symplicity Spyral received a positive opinion for LPPR registration in December 2023, following transitional coverage under the French innovative payment scheme known as pre-LPPR since December 2022.

On September 1, 2025, the Institute for Hospital Remuneration Systems (INeK) announced the start of the application process according to §6 (2) KHEntgG (New Examination and Treatment Methods, NUB) for 2026.

In late November – early December 2024, the application period for 2026 ICD-10-GM (German modification of ICD-10 diagnosis codes), OPS (procedure codes), and DRG changes was opened by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and the Institute for Hospital Remuneration Systems (INeK), respectively.

In mid-November 2024, a new version of the classification of procedure codes (CCAM v.77), effective from January 1, 2025, was published. No new codes were introduced. The main changes concerned the tariff rules for procedures and their applications for doctors, as well as the modification of tariffs for 31 dental procedures.

In January-March 2023, the Austrian Institute for HTA published Rapid reviews of three health technologies: liposuction for the removal of subcutaneous (large) lipomas, biomarkers in Parkinson's disease, and the use of telepathology in intraoperative frozen section examination.

In late November – early December 2023, the application period for 2025 ICD-10-GM (German modification of ICD-10 diagnosis codes), OPS (procedure codes), and DRG changes was opened by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and the Institute for Hospital Remuneration Systems (INeK) respectively.

On December 21, 2023, the revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog for the first quarter of 2024 was published. The most significant changes concern the update of Annex 2 of the catalog, the introduction of the new EBM codes for external electrical cardioversion in adult and pediatric patients, follow-up and evaluation of the health app companion patella, as well as a companion diagnostics test for genotyping to determine CYP2C19 metabolism status.

The so-called hybrid DRGs reimbursement mechanism will first cover services from the “starting catalog”, and it will be implemented at the beginning of 2024. The catalog itself is still not publicly available.

On September 1, 2023, the Institute for Hospital Remuneration Systems (INeK) announced the start of the application process for the innovation funding of the new examination and treatment methods (NUB) for 2024. The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) reminds applying hospitals about minor changes in application requirements.

On February 23, 2023, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the decisions, recommending the transfer to standard care for another three completed projects. The projects relate to preventing the family risk of colorectal carcinoma, shared decision-making in the hospitals, and digitally supported drug therapy management.

On January 25, 2023, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the decisions, recommending the transfer to standard care for another two completed projects. The projects relate to the improvement of the management of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAD) patients and the aftercare of pediatric patients suffering from chronic pain.

In late November – early December 2022, the application period for 2024 ICD-10-GM (German modification of ICD-10 diagnosis codes), OPS (procedure codes), and DRG changes was opened by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and the Institute for Hospital Remuneration Systems (INeK) respectively.