Reimbursement

On August 11, 2022, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) announced that two new services in the in-vitro diagnostics field in lung and colon cancer, respectively, will be reimbursed via the German Uniform Evaluation Standard (EBM).

On July 29, 2022, the Swiss Federal Statistics Office (UFS) published the 2023 version of the procedure code (CHOP) nomenclature in the German language. The newly introduced codes concern various technology groups, such as cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, in-vitro diagnostics, neurology and neurosurgery, interventional radiology, orthopedics, gynecology, and others.

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) released new recommendations about transitional coverage of medical devices and medical aids from the meetings of the National Commission for Evaluation of Medical Devices and Health Technologies (CNEDiMTS) in July 2022. Four opinions were published, and they concern devices in three technology groups.

On July 15, 2022, the Austrian Institute for HTA (AIHTA) published five decision support documents, which provide recommendations regarding the inclusion of new medical interventions in the catalog of individual medical services of the performance-oriented hospital financing (Leistungsorientierten Krankenanstaltenfinanzierung, LKF) model, as well as four updates to previous decision support documents. The decisions relate mainly to cardiovascular and gastrointestinal technology groups.

The French National Authority for Health released new recommendations about add-on reimbursement of medical devices and medical aids from the meetings of the National Commission for Evaluation of Medical Devices and Health Technologies in July 2022. Twenty recommendations were published in relation to the registration, modification of registration conditions, and renewal of registration for devices in the List of reimbursable products and services. Opinions concern cardiovascular and peripheral vascular, neurovascular and neuromodulation, orthopedic, endocrine, and ENT devices, as well as breast implants and medical aids. Except for this, CNEDiMTS published two positive and two negative opinions concerning transitional coverage of devices.

In May-July 2022, two more health apps were introduced in the Directory of digital health applications (DiGAs) at the Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and thus became reimbursable. These apps can be prescribed by physicians and psychotherapists and will be reimbursed by health insurers.

In July 2022, Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) announced the extension of temporary reimbursement for gene expression profile (GEP) testing for early-stage breast cancer detection until December 31, 2022, and for molecular biology tests by next-generation sequencing (NGS) until June 30, 2023.

The French National Authority for Health released new recommendations about add-on reimbursement of medical devices and medical aids from the meetings of the National Commission for Evaluation of Medical Devices and Health Technologies in June 2022. Nineteen recommendations were published in relation to the registration, modification of registration conditions, and renewal of registration for devices in the List of reimbursable products and services. Opinions concern cardiovascular, interventional radiology, orthopedic, neurovascular and neuromodulation, ophthalmology, as well as medical aids.

On June 23, 2022, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) announced the first steps aimed to expand the utilization of surgical procedures within day case/outpatient settings (reimbursed via the German Uniform Evaluation Standard (EBM) catalog).

The revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog came into force on July 1, 2022. The most significant changes concern introducing and updating multiple EBM codes for IVD tests and adjusting tariffs and content of radiotherapy services.

On June 28, 2022, the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) launched a call for subsidy “Implementation of Knowledge and Innovations in Appropriate Care” to improve Dutch healthcare in line with Appropriate Care principles. Subsidy applications will be submitted until September 13, 2022.

On June 17, 2022, INAMI announced the launch of a new reimbursement framework for remote medical consultations from August 01, 2022. The reimbursement for remote consultations was first introduced during the COVID-19 crisis via "teleconsultation" codes, which will now be terminated and replaced by other Nomenclature codes for telephone and video consultations. Physicians will receive a higher fee for video consultations.