CMS Approves Orthofix Application for External Fixation
BY JOHN MCCORMICK, JUNE 28, 2005
This morning Orthofix announced that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the Company's request to modify its coding mechanisms to include specific coding for hospital procedures utilizing external fixation devices.
As of October of this year, facilities will be allowed to separately code and report usage of external fixation devices. This, in turn, will create a data source from which CMS can accurately track utilization, costs and quality outcomes of procedures involving external fixation products.
Orthofix expects that this data will evidence a demonstrable positive economic impact and the necessity for separate and distinct reimbursement for external fixation devices.
In a press release this morning, Keely A. Scamperle, Manager of Reimbursement and Healthcare Economics in the Department of Government Affairs at Orthofix stated "This action by CMS allows us to collect and analyze substantial new data from hospitals across the United States, which we intend to present to CMS in due course to persuade CMS that external fixation products ought to be reimbursed separately". CEO Charles Federico noted that "this is a very significant step toward establishing the economic impact of, and necessity for, separate and distinct reimbursement processes for our external fixation devices."
From our standpoint this may well become a rich, and hopefully successful, case study in evidence based medicine. When collecting evidence for its coverage decision, we would expect CMS to to take into consideration practice guidelines of professional medical societies and use a rigorous approach when evaluating the clinical outcomes generated by the data. Our hope is that if the evidence falls into place on the external fixation devices, CMS would issue a Medicare coverage determination in a timely fashion.
