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.

Sixty-three new procedure codes and other changes were introduced into the service catalog of the LKF model 2020 for the inpatient and outpatient area in Austria.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern pediatric cataract involving lensectomy with or without lens implant, pediatric cataract involving lens aspiration and implant, delivery of a fraction MR Linac adaptive planned radiotherapy, low-level laser therapy for inflammation/pain relief and others. 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 and unacceptable combinations.

The Russian DRG system was updated for the year 2020. The main changes concern increase in the number of DRG groups, revision of the content of DRG for cases of radiation therapy, increase in the coefficients of the relative cost-intensiveness of DRG for cases of surgical treatment on the "Oncology" profile and revision of the coefficients of the relative cost-intensiveness of DRG according to the "Oncology" profile.

In March 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published four new interventional procedure guidance (for bilateral cervicosacropexy or vaginosacropexy using mesh for pelvic organ prolapse, cyanoacrylate glue occlusion for varicose veins, MRI-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy and selective internal radiation therapy for unresectable colorectal metastases in the liver) and five Medtech innovation briefings (for Cor-Knot for tying suture knots in valve surgery, artificial intelligence for analyzing CT brain scans and others).

The report presents a summary of the reimbursement situation for the use of treatment methods of scoliosis in Europe. The following procedures are considered under the scope of analysis: insertion of the spinal (growing) rod system, anterior or posterior interbody fusion in the spine with or without vertebra resection, sacroiliac joint fusion surgery. The analysis covers procedure coding, payment mechanism, reimbursement tariffs and policy restrictions in 11 EU countries including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. It is also possible to add analysis in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Turkey.

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.

With a regional decree 381 of March 23, 2020, Tuscany Regional Healthcare has published clinical guidelines on the appropriateness of use and indications on the variability of the consumption of the stents for the arteriopathy of the lower limbs, the carotid stents, and the coronary stents.

On 17 March 2020, NHS England announced that block contracts would be used to cover the period 1 April – 31 July, as the national tariff is suspended. Contractual arrangements for 2020/21 with NHS trusts/NHS foundation trusts and with non-NHS providers operating under the NHS Standard Contract were published.

New material codes for a locking stylus for extraction of endovenous electrodes and system with recovery lasso for the extraction of endovenous electrodes by femoral approach were added to the List of reimbursable devices of the Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) in April 2020. Some reimbursement conditions were updated as well.

The HTA body of the Tuscany Regional Healthcare issues two types of documents: HTA forms and motivational forms. With a regional decree 3047 of March 2, 2020, Tuscany Regional Healthcare has published assessments of eight medical devices of various therapeutic areas.

Patients with a newly diagnosed glioblastoma will have an opportunity to benefit from the therapy with tumor-treating fields (TTF) at the expense of statutory health insurance. The Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) decided on March 20, 2020, the details concerning the indications and the quality assurance measures that will apply when prescribing this outpatient treatment method.