Tuesday, November 22, 2005

CMS - Requires Hospitals to submit data on Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD)

ICD Registry

In accordance with the ICD National Coverage Determination (NCD), hospitals must submit data on all ICD implantations that were performed for primary prevention and occurred on or after January 2005.

Medicare intends to purchase the minimum data necessary to ensure that the appropriate beneficiaries are receiving ICDs as required by the NCD.

In addition, CMS plans to use data from the American College of Cardiology National Cardiovascular Data Registry (ACC-NCDR®) ICD Registry™ in order to equip the public with the ability to compare quality metrics for facilities that implant ICDs for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death.

CMS also hopes to answer several key questions about ICD implantation, including: whether complications vary by device manufacturer or device type; whether patient outcomes (i.e., morbidity and mortality) differ among patients based on clinical characteristics, device characteristics, the facility and/or physician who implants the device, etc.

As it becomes available, this aggregate information will be posted to the CMS Coverage web site at www.cms.hhs.gov/coverage.