Reimbursement

On March 17, 2022, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) published a standard for telemonitoring of patients with implantable cardiac devices (implantable defibrillators and pacemakers). In January 2022, the HAS also published standards for medical telemonitoring of four chronic pathologies (chronic respiratory failure, chronic heart failure, chronic renal failure, and diabetes). All these standards must be met by technologies in order to be reimbursed by the new reimbursement framework for telemonitoring, which is expected to enter into force in July 2022.

On March 03, 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement published a research demand signaling document for the National Stroke Programme. This document highlights the priority areas for research to inform national policy and support the NHS Long Term Plan targets. One of the high-priority areas is the technology for diagnosis, including artificial Intelligence solutions, innovative triage tools, technologies for the early and accurate diagnosis/detection of stroke.

In March 2022, NHS England opened a call for applications to the High Cost Device List (HCDL) changes for the 2023/24 National Tariff Payment System. The completed application form should be submitted via email by May 31, 2022. HCDL items are then either included in a fixed payment or paid in addition to the price of the related service.

On March 10, 2022, the Ministry of Solidarity and Health published an Order in the Official Journal of the French Republic, which announced the transitional coverage for the Neovasc Reducer system. This is the first device to be covered under the new transitional scheme.

On February 22, 2022, a repository of innovative acts outside the nomenclature of biology and anatomopathology (RIHN) and a Supplementary list of IVD tests were published. Minor changes were introduced in the 2022 RIHN list.

In February 2021, the Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) working group, which develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England, published Bulletins 0182 and 0079 with changes to be implemented no later than April 10, 2022. Three new procedure codes concerned robotic surgery in orthopaedic area, spinal procedures, and ophthalmology, and five new diagnostic codes were introduced.

At the end of February 2022, the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV) has launched a theme survey on products for monitoring and diagnostics of sepsis to identify products that may be relevant for health economic assessments at TLV. The suggestions for the products of interest, ongoing clinical studies, or innovation projects could be received until 23 March 2022.

On February 08, 2022, the Reimbursement Commission of the Social Security Institution released an updated version of the Healthcare Implementation Communique. The main changes relate to the increase in reimbursement fees of services and medical devices by approximately 35-75%.

In February 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 total, thirty health apps are now available at the DiGA Directory.

A new temporary reimbursement framework for remote consultations is planned to be implemented in Belgium in spring 2022.

On February 15, 2022, the preliminary version of the DRG manual for 2022 was published in France. Introduced changes (new DRGs, change of DRG logic) concern surgical procedures on the breast, interventions for malignant skin tumors, interventions of excision and grafting on the skin and subcutaneous tissue, spondyloplasties.

On January 24, 2022, the Norwegian Directorate of e-Health released an updated version of the National Laboratory code (NLK) system and associated tariffs for state and private laboratories to be implemented no later than March 01, 2022. NLK system has been used for activity-based reimbursement by the Norwegian Health Economics Administration (Helfo) in outpatient settings since 2018. Thirty new codes were added medical biochemistry, medical microbiology, immunology and transfusiology, and clinical pharmacology areas.