Reimbursement

In mid-December 2019, the Swiss Federal Department for Home Affairs (FDHA) has decided that two new autologous cell therapies (CAR-T therapies) for the treatment of leukemia and lymphoma will be reimbursed by compulsory health care insurance.

On November 7, 2019, the Nomenclature was updated. The update brought changes in chapter V of Nomenclature, regarding the creation of new codes and modification of existing codes.

In December 2019, the Swiss Medical Tariff Commission (MTK/CTM) has published their recommendations regarding the knee Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (ACI). The CTM recommends covering the costs of the implant for knee ACI until the end of 2024.

At the end of November 2019, the company in charge of the development of the DRG system in Switzerland, SwissDRG SA, has announced the tariff versions (2020/2020) of the DRG and the add-on reimbursement catalog.

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) regularly publishes new decisions about add-on reimbursement for medical devices. The decisions made in November 2019 concern various types of devices, including orthopaedic, and cardiovascular devices. A total of twenty-four decisions were made.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern injection eustachian tuboplasty, extracorporeal shockwave therapy for carpal tunnel syndrome, robotic-assisted laparoscopic excision of recto-vaginal endometriosis, and diagnostic codes for alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone, NK cell inhibition panel, XR whole spine, and others. The codes are introduced with a recommended adoption date being the 1st of February 2020. The documents also contain a list of textual changes in codes, unacceptable combinations, and inactivated codes.

On September 16, 2019, the Nomenclature was updated. The update brought changes in chapter V of Nomenclature, regarding the creation of new codes and modification of existing codes.

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) regularly publishes new decisions about add-on reimbursement for medical devices. The decisions made in October 2019 concern various types of devices, including orthopedic, cardiovascular devices, and hearing aids. A total of twenty-four decisions were made.

In order to promote the video consultations, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) have agreed on several new regulations. Thus, a video consultation will also be possible if the patient has not been previously treated by the doctor. For psychotherapies, the video consultations were reopened.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern scar revision, robotic-assisted thymectomy, prophylactic oophorectomy/ hysterectomy, percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, delivery of fraction of proton beam therapy for non-ocular adult tumors and diagnostic codes for myriad breast and ovarian cancer panel 101 test, clinical exome sequencing MPLA test, and others. The codes are introduced with a recommended adoption date being the 1st of February 2020. The documents also contain a list of textual changes in codes and inactivated codes.

New material codes for an implantable sensor for continuous measurement of glucose in interstitial fluid and embolization equipment were added to the List of reimbursable devices of the Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) in October 2019.

Reimbursement of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for diagnosis and therapy control in retinal diseases will be available from October 2019 via the EBM (Einheitlicher Bewertungsmaβstab, German Uniform Evaluation Standard).