Screening methods

On December 22, 2020, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health announced the changes that will occur to the Services Ordinance (KLV/OPre). The changes concern the general part of the Services Ordinance (KLV/OPre), and all four of its Annexes, which define the coverage of services (List of explicitly evaluated services, List of Medical Aids and Equipment, List of Analyses, List of Medications with Tariff). The updates will enter into force on January 1, 2021. Updates concern among others bariatric surgery, Autologous Chondrocyte Transplantation, ultrasound focused therapy for neurological indications.

In the middle of 2020, the Galician Scientific and Technical Advice Unit (Unidad de Asesoramiento Científico-técnico, Avalia-T) released a health technology assessment on clinical Effectiveness of newborn screening for inborn errors of metabolism by MS/MS that aimed to update the data collected in the pilot study. It is recommended to define health indicators, optimum and acceptable levels of some process indicators.

On behalf of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) investigated whether (former) heavy smokers within statutory health insurance (SHI) should be offered lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography (LDCT).

The revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog came into force on April 1, 2020. MTRC has compiled the selection of the most significant changes.

On behalf of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) investigated whether a test of newborns for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in Germany would make sense. The affected children benefit from early diagnosis as this enables an earlier start of therapy.

The revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) comes into force on April 1, 2020. Among others, the amendments made concern the billing of the services within the framework of early detection of cervical cancer. Also, the new fee order item (GOP) for the human papillomaviruses (HPV) genotyping service was added.

On February 1, 2020, an additional test was added to the newborn screening, performed 2-3 days after birth. Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is thus the 18th disease for which newborns are screened in Denmark.

At the start of the organized program for the early detection of cervical cancer on January 1, 2020, several new services will be added to the EBM (Einheitlicher Bewertungsmaβstab, German Uniform Evaluation Standard).

On the 10th of December 2019, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI-HTA) has released a report on the implementation of an HPV screening test for the early detection of cervical cancer in women as a measure of cervical cancer prevention. The recommendations are positive.

In October 2019, the Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia (AQuAS) has released an assessment report regarding the scientific evidence on personalized population screening for breast cancer. The current evidence does not allow to recommend any concrete models for individualized risk prediction for breast cancer but allows to recommend the development and evaluation of new models for personalized risk prediction directed to offering different strategies to the screening of population.

On behalf of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) investigated whether a systematic test of newborns for sickle cell disease (SCD) in Germany would make sense.

In mid-September 2019, the report of the project OTCA19, titled “Screening for osteoporosis in the general population” was published on the website of the European Network for HTA (EUnetHTA).