Medicare Advisors Mostly Favor TAVR Center Volume Thresholds

The Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee looked at the evidence for procedural volume requirements that hospitals and heart-team members currently must meet to perform transcatheter aortic valve replacements versus the prospect of quality measures as a condition of coverage. The discussion at a meeting held this week will inform the US Medicare agency's ongoing reconsideration of its TAVR coverage policy.

Edwards' Sapien 3 Transcatheter Aortic Valve • Source: Edwards Lifesciences

A group of Medicare advisors generally supported maintaining procedure-volume requirements for physicians and hospitals as a basis for covering transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures during a July 25 meeting. But some in the medical and device-maker community argued that the emphasis must shift away from volume and toward quality measures.

The pros and cons of requiring physicians and hospitals to meet minimum annual procedure volumes to receive Medicare reimbursement for...

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