Reimbursement

On 17th June 2019, the company in charge of the development of the DRG system in Switzerland, SwissDRG SA, has announced the catalog version of SwissDRG 9.0/2020 (2017/2020). Eleven days later, the planning version of SwissDRG (2018/2020) has been published as well.

At the beginning of June 2019, the National Healthcare Institute (Zorginstituut Nederland, ZIN) has published an Overview of the healthcare services, which were excluded or included with restrictions into Basic Insurance Package. Percutaneous liver perfusion with melphalan in patients with metastases from a uveal melanoma was included with restrictions, whereas CardioMEMS PA Monitoring was included in the context of research only.

Notification to the Belgian Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AFMPS) is a condition for obtaining reimbursement of compulsory medical insurance for implants and invasive medical devices for long-term use. Only devices that meet the notification requirements will be eligible for health care insurance.

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) regularly publishes new decisions about add-on reimbursement for medical devices. The decisions made in May 2019 concern various types of devices, including orthopedic, cardiovascular and diabetes devices.

On April 18, 2019, the Nomenclature was updated. The update brought changes in chapter V of Nomenclature, regarding the creation of new codes for ultrasound examination during pregnancy.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develop and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern cytoreductive surgery for colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis, cytoreductive surgery for ovarian malignancies, therapeutic sialendoscopy, intra corporeal salivary gland lithotripsy, and others and diagnostic codes for tests for common and rare mutations.

HealthTech Connect, a new online resource provided by NICE to help identify and support new health technologies as they move from inception to adoption in the UK health and care system, was formally launched April 29th, 2019. The system, which is free to use, will help companies to understand what information is needed by decision makers in the UK health and care system, and clarify possible routes to market access.

Between the 3rd of June and the 15th of July, SwissDRG will be receiving the requests/suggestions regarding the DRG system in the country.

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) regularly publishes new decisions about add-on reimbursement for medical devices. The decisions made in April 2019 concern orthopedic devices, coronary stents, ventricular assist devices, remote monitoring systems in cardiovascular field, cochlear implants, bronchial thermoplasty device.

On March 7, 2019, the Nomenclature was updated. The update brought changes in chapter V of Nomenclature, regarding the creation of new codes, deletion, and modification of existing codes. Changes mainly related to the in-vitro diagnostic testing.

The 2019/20 national tariff payment system has been published and took on the 1st of April 2019. There have been no substantial changes to the proposed tariff consulted on during January and February 2019. Under the published tariff, blended payment will be the default payment approach for emergency care services.

At the beginning of April 2019, the Federal Cabinet has adopted the draft of a "Law on the Establishment of an Implants Registry in Germany and other amendments to the Fifth Book of the Social Code” (Implants Registry Establishment Law, Implantateregister-Errichtungsgesetz, EIRD).