Medtech


January 21, 2025

Guardant (GH) Reveal Medicare Coverage FAQ

By John Leppard

Following GH’s announcement this AM of Medicare coverage of its tissue-naïve Reveal test for minimal residual disease (MRD) surveillance testing, we wanted to highlight some additional salient points omitted from the company’s press release. The…

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January 13, 2025

Medtronic: Medicare RDN Coverage in 4Q24

By John Leppard

In keeping with expectations laid out in our note late last week, CMS’s opening of a National Coverage Analysis (NCA) for renal denervation (RDN) [Medtronic (MDT), Otsuka (4578.JT) / ReCor] this afternoon has a target…

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January 13, 2025

Inspire V Payment & Coverage Quick Take

By John Leppard

INSP’s disclosure today that physicians will likely be billing its Inspire V device procedures under CPT 64568 ($596) during a “transition period” – rather than existing Inspire IV code CPT 64582 ($816), as we had…

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January 12, 2025

Diagnostics’ New Supreme Court Risk

By John Leppard

The Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) decision on Friday to hear oral arguments in Becerra v. Braidwood, presumably in late March / early April, will likely serve as an overhang for screening test manufacturers [EXAS, GH, MYGN,…

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January 10, 2025

Medtronic (MDT): Renal Denervation Coverage Read-Through?

By John Leppard

This morning’s opening of a Medicare National Coverage Determination (NCD) for privately-held Impulse Dynamics’ Optimizer System bolsters our view that coverage for renal denervation (RDN) systems [Medtronic (MDT), Otsuka / ReCor (4578.JT)] is unlikely to…

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January 8, 2025

Exact Sciences (EXAS): Cologuard Plus Coverage Questions

By John Leppard

A Jan. 1 update to CMS’s colorectal cancer (CRC) screening guide appears to support our view that Medicare coverage of EXAS’ Cologuard Plus (0464U: $592) and its 16% rate premium over the legacy version (81528:…

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January 6, 2025

Conference Policy Prep Pack: Devices, Diagnostics, & Tools

By John Leppard

With medical device, equipment, diagnostics, and life science tools (LST) companies set to descend on San Francisco next week for a key investor conference, below we provide a set of significant policy-related questions for clients…

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December 20, 2024

EW: Tricuspid Coverage Positive, With Some Caveats

By John Leppard

We view CMS’s draft coverage policy for transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) as incrementally more positive for EW’s Evoque relative to our initial expectations. The lack of facility / operator volume thresholds will likely allow…

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December 17, 2024

[GRAL, EXAS, GH] Multi-Cancer Test Coverage: Details Fall Flat

By John Leppard

While positive on its face, the inclusion of multi-cancer early detection (MCED) screening test [GRAL, EXAS, GH] coverage provisions in tonight’s continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through March 14 leaves much to be…

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December 11, 2024

[EW, ABT] Tricuspid Coverage Expectations

By John Leppard

With CMS due to publish its draft National Coverage Determinations (NCD) for EW’s Evoque transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) by Dec. 20, followed by ABT’s TriClip edge-to-edge repair (T-TEER) by Apr. 3, we view EW…

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