CMS to settle payment fight over Gamma Knife

Jul 12 2013

The Wall Street Journal: CMS Steps In To Settle Gamma Knife-Varian Fight
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed a new rule that would effectively put to rest a provision inserted into last year's fiscal cliff bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) to help a U.S. company. The original provision threatened to slash payments to the Swedish maker of a radiosurgical device called the Gamma Knife, thereby helping its competitor, a U.S. company that makes Linac -- short for linear accelerator -- machines. ... Under the rule proposed Monday, CMS would reimburse any facility performing the delicate brain tumor radiosurgery in a single treatment the same amount (Mundy, 7/10).