From January 2020, the "Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score" test is reimbursed by the health insurance companies at an extra budget of 3,296.50€. This is explicitly the only test that the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) has included in the contracted medical care.

We have released the interview on the Market Access Insider channel on Youtube. Prof. Banfi gave an extensive introduction to the history and the current state of the health technology assessment in Italy. Also, the current state of the HTA program in Lombardy was discussed.

New material code for a set of nets for the repair of prolapse (for vaginal placement) was added to the List of reimbursable devices of the Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) in January 2020.

In December 2019, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health released an HTA report regarding the effectiveness of uterine fibroids treatment commissioned by the Centre for joint decision-making to summarize the findings regarding this method. Embolization probably reduces the time that is needed to get back to the activity in comparison to myomectomy and hysterectomy.

On the week of the 20th of January, MTRC published several posts related to the barriers for the adoption of EUnetHTA reports for health technologies, countries with a global budget payment system, the timing of government-sponsored coverage with evidence development programs PHRC and PRME in France, market access implications of the political changes in Russia, and the algorithm to classify different design of the studies. Follow us on Instagram on @mtrc.market.access

The Swiss Services Ordinance (KLV/OPre) is the document that defines the health care services which are covered by the compulsory health insurance in Switzerland. It is updated annually (with more frequent updates possible); thus, the 2020 version is released. Changes concern autologous transplantation of chondrocytes, extracorporeal photopheresis, transcatheter aortic valve implantation, ultrasound therapy focused on the pallidum, thalamus and subthalamus, CAR-T cell therapies, tomography with positron emission (PET/CT), stereotactic radiation therapy (photons) of wet age-related macular degeneration.

In early January 2020, the Danish Health Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) has updated the national clinical guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with age-related cataracts.

In early January 2020, the network of European HTA agencies, EUnetHTA, announced the final plan of the project OTCA24 “The 24-hour blood pressure measurement device Mobil-O-Graph® with the built-in pulse wave velocity algorithm ARCSolver® to measure arterial stiffness for the optimization of hypertension treatment and assessment of cardiovascular risk”.

With a regional decree of December 18, 2019, Tuscany Regional Healthcare has published assessments of thirteen medical devices belonging to various therapeutic areas.

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.