CMS has issued a proposal for the 2022 fiscal year that would potentially help big medtech companies like Boston Scientific and Stryker.
Released yesterday, the proposal for the Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospital (LTCH) offers updated Medicare payment policies and rates for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals and for certain hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS for fiscal 2022.
CMS aims to close healthcare equity gaps and support greater access to certain diagnostics and therapies during the ongoing public health emergency brought on by COVID-19 and beyond.
The proposal lists technologies that would receive an additional year of new technology add-on payments (NTAP), which includes devices from Boston Scientific and Stryker, among several other medtech companies.
Boston Scientific’s Eluvia drug-eluting stent was included on the list. The device is designed for treating peripheral artery disease (PAD) by reopening the blocked artery and restoring blood flow while also using a drug-polymer combination to offer a sustained, low-dose drug release to prevent tissue regrowth within the stented artery.
In September 2020, Eluvia received an NTAP as part of the 2021 IPPS, which Boston Scientific said would provide eligible hospitals with incremental reimbursement for Eluvia for up to three years.
Also included in CMS’ proposal was Stryker’s SpineJack system, an implantable fracture-reduction system designed to reduce painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.
CMS also proposed to extend the NTAP for 14 technologies that otherwise would have been discontinued in fiscal 2022. The agency also plans to extend new COVID-19 treatment add-on payments (NCTAP) for eligible products through the end of the fiscal year in which the COVID-19 public health emergency ends.
According to the agency’s proposal, add-on payments are usually offered to hospitals for two to three years following the date of FDA approval or marketing clearance.