Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CMS May Expand Use Of A Procedure That Allows Doctors To Replace The Aortic Heart Valve Without Open-Heart Surgery
Stat: CMS Proposes Changing Requirements For Less-Invasive Heart Valve Procedure
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services proposed a new set of policies that appear to expand the use of a procedure that allows doctors to replace the aortic heart valve without performing open-heart surgery. The procedure, called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), was first introduced as an alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) for the sickest patients, but its use has gradually expanded to more and more patients as clinical trials showed that the catheter-based approach was as good or, in some ways, better. The two leading makers of TAVR are Edwards Lifesciences, the market leader, and Medtronic. (Herper, 3/26)
In other news on Medicare —
Modern Healthcare: Medicare Is Working To Fix Inappropriate Lab Test Billing
CMS Administrator Seema Verma told Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) the agency is scrutinizing lab test bills submitted to Medicare to make sure the government hasn't been overpaying laboratories because of inappropriate coding. In a letter to Grassley, Verma noted that Medicare is required to pay a separate amount for each clinical diagnostic test under law. That rate has to be equal to the "weighted median of the private payer rates" for each test, based on the data reported by the labs that administer to the test. (Luthi, 3/26)
Modern Healthcare: HHS' Hargan: Medicare Cuts Will Shore Up Program
HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan assured U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers on Tuesday that the $845 billion Medicare spending cut over the next decade won't amount to slashing care. A large portion of the seeming cuts stems from a change in how hospitals are paid for uncompensated care and graduate medical education. Instead of taking those dollars from the Medicare trust fund, they will come from the general fund, shrinking the gap to around $500 billion, Hargan said during a House Budget Committee hearing. (King, 3/26)
