The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern removal of pectus bar, open surgical correction of pectus deformity of the chest wall, intradermal injection into the scalp, nerve and neurolytic root block with or without image guidance, facet joint injection with or without image guidance and diagnostic code for gustatory testing. The codes are introduced with a recommended adoption date being the 1st of May 2020. The documents also contain a list of textual changes in codes, unacceptable combinations, and inactivated codes.

On the week of the 13th of January, MTRC published several posts related to the upcoming change of the UK payment system, the top categories of medical devices evaluated by HTA organizations in Europe, the criteria for the creation of a new OPS procedure code in Germany, medical devices added to the High-Cost Device List in England in April 2020, the factors affecting the decision to introduce a new technology, and the least common topics of Med Tech HTA in Europe. Follow us on Instagram on @mtrc.market.access

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) regularly publishes new decisions about add-on reimbursement for medical devices. The decisions made in December 2019 concern various types of devices, mostly for cardiovascular devices. A total of five decisions were made.

We have released the interview on the Market Access Insider channel on Youtube. The interview covered key stakeholders, reimbursement mechanism and pathways for procedures, implantable and invasive devices, coverage with evidence development program in Belgium. Michel shared a lot of first-hand insights from the reimbursement submissions in the country.

The NHS in England is providing a new form of DNA test capable of quickly diagnosing rare diseases for critically ill babies and children, as part of its Long Term Plan to use world-leading technologies to improve care for the sickest infants.

In this post, we have summarized all the important developments with our services and products, which can be used by Med Tech, IVD and digital health companies to achieve better outcomes of the market access activities. This includes expansion of geographical coverage, growth in number of topics covered by the ready-made reimbursement reports, expertise in the e-health space, new services of health economics and value dossier, new free resources on market access, online educational materials on market access. Let us know, if you need any support with market access in European countries.

New material codes for implantable non-rechargeable neurostimulator, electrodes, and extensions for stimulation of the dorsal root nodes were added to the List of reimbursable devices of the Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) in December 2019.

Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) has released key features of the DRG package for 2021, including complex chronic lung failure, stem cell transplant care, indexation of DRG tariffs, and position about reimbursment of MammaPrint test.

In December 2019, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new interventional procedure guidance (for balloon dilation for chronic eustachian tube dysfunction), one new medical technologies guidance (for gammaCore for cluster headache), and five new MedTech innovation briefings (for Optowire for measuring fractional flow reserve, eXroid for internal hemorrhoids, and others).

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 the week of 6th of January, MTRC published several posts related to the process of DRG change in England, list of technologies with different levels of added value (ASA) in France, countries offering access to hospital procedure volume information, improvements with glaucoma minimally invasive surgery reimbursement in England, the role of DRG in Scandinavia, and list of countries actively using DRG system for case-by-case reimbursement. Follow us on Instagram on mtrc.market.access

In mid-November 2019, the report of the project OTCA20, titled “Prophylactic or therapeutic use of endoanchoring systems in endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR/TEVAR)” was published on the website of the European Network for HTA (EUnetHTA).