20 Organizations Push CMS to Finalize Changes to Expand Access to TAVR

The Alliance for Aging Research, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), and 18 other patient advocacy, provider, and caregiver organizations submitted comments to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on their Proposed Decision Memo for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) (CAG-00430R2, NCA-CAL-321).

The groups applauded the proposed decision and the transformative change updates to Medicare’s national TAVR coverage policy. By lifting the 14-year Coverage with Evidence Development (CED) requirement, CMS formally recognized that TAVR is reasonable and necessary for the treatment of severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS). Additionally, the updates to the TAVR coverage criteria related to pre-procedural patient assessment, intraoperative requirements, and operator and hospital procedural volume requirements shift the focus to where it matters most: TAVR proficiency, data-driven quality, patient experience, and relevant operator expertise.

The groups urges CMS to finalize these pivotal changes to expand TAVR access, and build on the progress by extending the same national coverage approach—without CED—to Medicare patients with asymptomatic severe AS. Additionally, they encouraged CMS to reconsider the use of CED in Medicare, because it interferes in the practice of medicine and impacts access to care for millions of beneficiaries annually.

In addition to the Alliance and PFCD, the following organizations signed the letter:

• Alliance for Patient Access
• ASCP – Age Friendly Pharmacists and Pharmacies
• Association of Black Cardiologists
• Caregiver Action Network
• CaringKind, The Heart of Alzheimer’s Caregiving
• Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation
• Global Coalition on Aging
• HealthHIV
• Lupus and Allied Diseases Association, Inc.
• Lupus Foundation of America
• National Alliance for Caregiving
• National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs (NANASP)
• National Consumers League
• National Grange
• National Minority Quality Forum
• Nevada Chronic Care Collaborative
• RetireSafe
• Voices of Alzheimer’s

Read the comment letter and the Alliance’s statement on the proposed decision memo.