In May of 2018, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) approved two additional indications for application of PET/CT for management of malignant lymphomas for coverage within statutory health insurance. As the procedures were included into Directive for methods and examinations and Directive methods of the contract medical care, they are now reimbursed in both hospital and out-patient settings.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development Group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In April new codes for therapeutic arthroscopic operation of temporomandibular joint, pelvic angiogram and diagnostic small-bore needle arthroscopy were added to the CCSD Schedule.

On the 14th of May of 2018, Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefit Agency (Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket, TLV) has published a decision regarding inclusion of number of consumable medical devices for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) into the list of pharmaceutical benefits with the price of SEK 236.35 per piece.

Report includes analysis for the following procedures: radiofrequency ablation, endoscopic plication and suturing, injection of bulking agents and endoscopic augmentation of the lower esophageal sphincter using hydrogel implants. 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.

Report includes analysis for the following procedures: surgical clipping, endovascular placement of a flow diversion device, endovascular coiling and stent-assisted coiling. 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.

On the 9th of May of 2018, the addendum H18-01 to the report H16-02C “Ultrasound-guided high-focused ultrasound (USgHIFU) therapy for malignant neoplasms of the pancreas” commissioned by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) at the beginning of March of 2018, was published by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) on its web-site.

In the first half of May, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new interventional procedure guidance for percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty for fetal critical aortic stenosis and three new medtech innovation briefings for patient position monitoring system for intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery, 3D/QFR imaging software to assess coronary fractional flow reserve non-invasively and point-of-care tests for diagnosing group A beta-haemolytic streptococcus (strep A) throat infection.

In mid-May 2018, the Basque office for Health Technology Assessment, OSTEBA, has published a rapid assessment report on treating prostate cancer with high-intensity focused ultrasound. The article is published under EUnetHTA framework.

In April of 2018, Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefit Agency (Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket, TLV) has published a number of consumable medical devices, which were excluded from the list of pharmaceutical benefits per manufacturers’ request.

The call for a tender to select an organization to run the pilot study “Liposuction for the treatment of lipedema” was announced by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) on the 8th of May of 2018. The deadline for the requests is the 26th of June, 2018, 14:00.

On the 26th of April of 2018, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) has announced the call for a tender for the pilot study “Transcorneal Electrical Stimulation in Retinitis Pigmentosa” in the Official Journal of the European Union. The deadline for the requests is the 22nd of June, 2018, 14:00