Cook Medical touted new Medicare reimbursement coverage for its Zilver PTX drug-eluting stent, which now qualifies for Medicare’s new-technology add-on payments, according to a company statement. The additional payments are available only for in-patient procedures, not affecting physician or hospital coverage for out-patient procedures or ambulatory surgery center reimbursements.

The Zilver PTX DES recently made its way back onto the global market after concerns of a breakage in the delivery system prompted a recall.

Back in April Cook recalled all sizes, diameters and lot numbers of the Zilver PTX drug-eluting stent after receiving reports of 1 death and 1 patient injury possibly associated with a breakage in the catheter delivery system. It took about 90 days to correct the issue and to make sure there was enough inventory on hand to meet demand, a spokesman told MassDevice.com at the time.

The new coverage means that Zilver PTX meets criteria for representing a "substantial clinical improvement," that existing payments rate were deemed "inadequate" and that there isn’t sufficient data for Medicare to delegate reimbursement rates under its Medicare severity diagnosis-related groups.