Reimbursement

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) regularly publishes new decisions about add-on reimbursement for medical devices. The decisions made in October 2018 concern various types of devices.

The Health Data Agency published new DRG tariffs for hospital and outpatient care in the somatic and psychiatric area for 2019.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development Group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In October, eight new procedure codes for operations on joints, morcellation of uterine leiomyomas, transurethral water vapour and water jet ablation for lower urinary tract symptoms and transoral surgery have been added to the CCSD Schedule.

In partnership with NHS England, NHS Improvement has set out some of the principal proposed changes to the payment system in 2019/20. The proposals include a change of the default way of paying for urgent and emergency care (moving away from episodic prices), recalculated market forces factor values and options for how the tariff might be used to fund the new NHS supply chain organisation.

The Dutch Healthcare Authority advises to reward health care providers in specialist medical care on the basis of the health benefits for the patient.

The Health Data Agency published new DRG tariffs for hospital and outpatient care in the somatic and psychiatric area for 2019.

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) regularly publishes new decisions about add-on reimbursement for medical devices. The decisions made in the period July-September 2018 concern various types of devices. In total, 52 decisions were published.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development Group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In July/August new codes for genetic tests, including 18S rRNA gene and sequencing and ELA2 Cyclic Neutropenia Genetic Screen were added to the CCSD Schedule.

In mid-September 2018, the Swiss Federal Council has placed in consultation the first group of actions that are intended to contain costs in the healthcare sector. The suggested measures will be discussed with all relevant healthcare stakeholders (tariff partners, Cantons, industry and patient associations). These measures should save hundreds of millions of Swiss francs in the long term.

On 24th of August, 2018, the company that maintains DRG system in Switzerland, SwissDRG SA, has announced that the planning version of SwissDRG (version 8.0 (2018/2019)) and the planning version of TARPSY (version 2.0 (2018/2019)) have been published.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development Group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In July new codes for aminoglycoside induced deafness testing, Intra-Operative PTH profile, cytokine panels and lymphocyte immunophenotyping, streptococcus pneumoniae by PCR, OCT for cardiology, contract-enhanced ultrasound and faecal immunochemistry test were added to the CCSD Schedule.

Six new DRGs have been added for 2019, including proton therapy, insertion of functional implants in the urinary tract or male genitals and replacement of processor in cochleart implant.