In mid-September 2018, the Andalusian HTA agency, AETSA, published a report in which they assessed the safety and effectiveness of the cardiopoietic stem cells therapy of secondary heart failure to myocardial ischemia.

In the early July 2018, the authorities of the Italian region Veneto brought a decree that updates the regional guidelines for the management of patients with colostomy, ileostomy and urostomy that were published in January 2017.

The report presents a summary of reimbursement situation for percutaneous ablation procedures for diseases of lung, prostate, kidney, liver and bone. Different types of ablation methods are considered in the report, including radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, microwave ablation. Thermal ablation is not considered. 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.

EUnetHTA is a network of HTA bodies within Europe that promote the development of health technology assessment in all European countries by working together. This article will present the plans for the projects that will be published in the near future.

On 20th of July, 2018, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI) has published HTA of allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells for Crohn’s disease-associated complex perianal fistulas. Currently, inclusion into Austrian catalogue of benefits was not recommended with reevaluation in 2022.

MTRC expands the coverage of EU countries with its core service of reimbursement analysis (procedure coding, payment model, reimbursement tariffs). Work is done by MTRC personnel, supported by local reimbursement experts. Contact us, if you want to learn more.

On the 3rd of September 2018, an association of 4 Swiss health insurers, curafutura, published their opinion on the proposed reform of payment mechanism for inpatient and outpatient services.

On 20th of July, 2018, the Austrian HTA body, the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute (LBI) has published an evaluation of baroreceptor activation therapy for treatment-resistant hypertension. The authors concluded that there is no sufficient evidence to conclude on effectiveness or safety of BAT and thus inclusion of the procedure into the Austrian benefit catalogue is not recommended. There are currently three RCTs going on, and their results may bring new evidence.

The article "Congenital heart defect repair with ADAPT tissue engineered pericardium scaffold: An early-stage health economic model", published in Plos One presented the cost effectiveness of tissue engineered bovine tissue pericardium scaffold (CardioCel) for the repair of congenital heart defects in comparison with surgery using xenogeneic, autologous, and synthetic patches over a 40-year time horizon from the perspective of the UK National Health Service.

On 13th of August, 2018, the association of Swiss insurers, santésuisse, published an announcement in which they state that the control of the invoices received saves the premium payers’ costs up to CHF 3 billion.

On the 14th of August of 2018, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has published a health technology assessment report in relation to autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) comparing with standard treatment for patients with systemic sclerosis. The results have shown that the transplant‐related mortality after AHSCT is high, but risk of organ failure and death is lower after two years follow‐up and beyond compared to standard treatment, AHSCT provides a significant improvement of skin involvement and lung function measured by forced vital capacity compared to standard treatment with cyclophosphamide injections.

On 24th of August, 2018, the company that maintains DRG system in Switzerland, SwissDRG SA, has announced that the planning version of SwissDRG (version 8.0 (2018/2019)) and the planning version of TARPSY (version 2.0 (2018/2019)) have been published.