In late March 2024, NHS England released the amended 2023/25 NHS Payment Scheme (NHSPS) to come into force on April 1, 2024. No changes were made to the general payment model. Eight new items were added to the High Cost Devices List, and one new device was added to the MedTech Funding Mandate. New reimbursement codes and tariffs for three types of specialist radiotherapy were introduced. Furthermore, HRG tariffs were uplifted for 2024/25.

On April 3, 2024, the revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog for the second quarter of 2024 was published. The changes introduced mainly concern updating the content of several EBM sections with the respective comments and/or clarifications and introducing the new EBM codes for the services provided within the co-funded study on sleep position therapy in mild to moderate position-dependent obstructive sleep apnea.

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) released new recommendations about add-on reimbursement of medical devices and medical aids from the meetings of the National Commission for Evaluation of Medical Devices and Health Technologies (CNEDiMTS) in March 2024. Twelve recommendations were published concerning the registration of medical devices or modification of registration conditions/extension of indications for the medical devices in the List of Reimbursable Products and Services (LPPR). Opinions concern cardiovascular, neurovascular, ENT, and surgical devices, interventional radiology and endoscopy procedures, as well as medical aids.

The HTA body of the Tuscany Regional Healthcare issues three types of documents: full HTA reports, rapid HTA reports, and motivational forms. With regional decree 6700 of March 27, 2024, Tuscany Regional Healthcare published three new assessments and one re-assessment of medical devices in the cardiovascular, men’s health, nephrology and urology, and surgical procedures areas.

In March 2024, the English government endorsed the UK National Screening Committee's recommendation to introduce newborn screening for hereditary tyrosinaemia type 1 (HT1). Testing for HT1 will be added to the NHS Newborn Blood Spot Screening Programme in England.

In a new White Paper, MTRC identified evidence requirements for the creation of CCAM codes for diagnostic (non-IVD) procedures performed by physicians based on an analysis of four recent HAS reports with positive and negative recommendations. The analysis was performed in February 2024.

On March 28, 2024, it was announced that the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband), and the German Hospital Federation (DKG) agreed to extend the Hybrid DRGs catalog with about 100 more procedures to be reimbursed via the Hybrid DRGs mechanism starting in 2025.

On March 26, 2024, the Swedish Medical Technologies Product (MTP) Council recommended three spinal cord stimulation devices (Intellis, Proclaim, and WaveWriter) for patients with neuropathic pain and insufficient effect of conventional treatment. Devices have been evaluated as part of the Orderly introduction framework.

Market access is a rapidly changing field and the landscape varies for different types of medical technologies. To provide an additional, easy-to-access source of high-level information about key themes in the market access landscape and challenges for individual types of medical technologies, MTRC launched a dedicated Knowledge Zone on the website. Currently, the Knowledge Zone includes information about procedure coding, payment mechanisms, policy considerations, HTA, and future challenges for market access for 12 types of medical technologies. In the coming weeks, the Zone will expand 40 key technology groups

On March 23, 2024, the Norwegian Directorate of Health released an updated version of the Norwegian Laboratory Code (NLK) system and associated tariffs to be implemented no later than May 1, 2024. A total of 107 new codes were added, 92 codes were amended, and two codes were terminated.

On March 26, 2024, the “Digital Law – DigiG” (Law to accelerate the digitalization of the healthcare system) came into force, leading a line of changes concerning the G-BA Innovation Fund: the Fund becomes permanent and also the funding procedure for the projects dedicated to the new forms of care changes.

In March 2024, NHS England published twelve new service specifications defining the scope and function of clinical networks in different fields, including cardiology, intensive care, nephrology, neurosurgery, and orthopedics. Clinical networks allow specialty-level collaboration between patients, providers, and commissioners and play a vital role in coordinating pathways of care, supporting equitable access to healthcare, and assuring and improving quality.