CMS convenes panel, invites comments on health outcomes for heart failure treatment technologies

Tim Casey | | Cardiovascular Business | Heart Failure

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will convene a panel of experts on March 22 at a public meeting in Baltimore.

Members of the panel, known as Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC), will discuss the best health outcomes to include in studies for heart failure treatment technologies.

CMS is accepting written comments through Feb. 21 at 5 p.m. (EST). The meeting will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on March 22 at CMS’s main auditorium in Baltimore.

MEDCAC is an advisory panel that CMS uses to supplement its internal expertise, but CMS ultimately makes all final coverage decisions.

The panel will vote on five questions pertaining to health outcomes in research studies of heart failure treatment technologies, surrogate and intermediate endpoints, quality of life measures, functional assessments and other topics.

“The MEDCAC panel will examine the growing challenges associated with the decreased level of evidence generated prior to market authorization of new and innovative technology,” CMS said in a posting on its website. “By voting on specific questions, and by their discussions, MEDCAC panel members will advise CMS about the ideal health outcomes in research studies of heart failure treatment technologies and appropriate follow-up duration to ensure transparency of National Coverage Analyses (NCA) and requirements under Coverage with Evidence Development (CED).”

Tim Casey,

Executive Editor

Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.

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