To speed the availability of new treatments, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a new rule that accelerates Medicare coverage for technological innovations. This rule, called Medicare Coverage of Innovative Technology (MCIT), will provide national Medicare coverage as early as the same day as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes breakthrough devices to be released into the market. The coverage would last for four years and provide Medicare beneficiaries with predictable access to new, breakthrough devices that may help improve their overall health outcomes.
The same rule also clarifies and codifies the agency's definition of "reasonable and necessary" coverage for services that fall under Medicare Parts A and B. This part of the rule applies to more than just technological innovations and will be used to make coverage determinations for a wide variety of services. According to the text of the rule, an item or service must be safe and effective, not experimental or investigational, and appropriate for Medicare patients.
Overall, the changes made by this rule are a win-win: they will give Medicare beneficiaries immediate access to innovative technologies that address their health needs, while at the same time keeping them safe from experimental procedures or untested devices that could put their health at risk.
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Bethany Cissell is a health care insurance services specialist at Allsup.
(Image: CMS) 
