Healthcare reform in Austria: Austrian health insurance fund established

On February 22, 2022, a repository of innovative acts outside the nomenclature of biology and anatomopathology (RIHN) and a Supplementary list of IVD tests were published. Minor changes were introduced in the 2022 RIHN list.

In February 2021, the Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) working group, which develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England, published Bulletins 0182 and 0079 with changes to be implemented no later than April 10, 2022. Three new procedure codes concerned robotic surgery in orthopaedic area, spinal procedures, and ophthalmology, and five new diagnostic codes were introduced.

At the end of February 2022, the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV) has launched a theme survey on products for monitoring and diagnostics of sepsis to identify products that may be relevant for health economic assessments at TLV. The suggestions for the products of interest, ongoing clinical studies, or innovation projects could be received until 23 March 2022.

On February 08, 2022, the Reimbursement Commission of the Social Security Institution released an updated version of the Healthcare Implementation Communique. The main changes relate to the increase in reimbursement fees of services and medical devices by approximately 35-75%.

In February 2022, two more health apps were introduced in the Directory of digital health applications (DiGAs) at the Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and thus became reimbursable. These apps can be prescribed by physicians and psychotherapists and will be reimbursed by health insurers. In total, thirty health apps are now available at the DiGA Directory.