The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will hold a hearing Oct. 21 to discuss its coverage policy for radio-frequency catheter ablation techniques to treat atrial fibrillation.
The federal health insurer doesn’t have a national coverage policy on the procedure, which involves using high-frequency energy delivered to cardiac tissue through a catheter. The procedure is supposed to neutralize the cardiac cells that cause arrhythmia.
A decision to cover the procedure by CMS could have a dramatic effect on whether private insurers reimburse physicians for the procedure. According to CMS, reimbursement decisions are currently left up to local Medicare contractors.