January 30, 2020: CMS Transmittal on Enhanced NTAP ABX Payments

https://www.cms.gov/files/document/se20004.pdf

Increasing Access to Innovative Antibiotics 
for Hospital Inpatients 
Using New Technology Add-On Payments: 
Frequently Asked Questions 


MLN Matters Number: SE20004
Article Release Date: January 21, 2020
Related CR Transmittal Number: N/A
Related Change Request (CR) Number: N/A

Effective Date: N/A        Implementation Date: N/A

This MLN Matters Special Edition Article informs providers of changes made by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop an alternative New Technology Add-On Payment (NTAP) to increase access to innovative antibiotics for hospital inpatients.

SE20004 answers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about NTAP. BACKGROUND Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) represents an urgent clinical and economic crisis for the American health care system. Bacteria resistant to existing antibiotic drugs annually infect more than 2 million Americans, resulting in thousands of deaths.

Seniors are uniquely vulnerable to AMR due to age-related immunosuppression and greater exposure to infection (from catheters or chronic disease). A recent CMS internal analysis indicated that Medicare beneficiaries account for the majority of cases of both new diagnoses of drug-resistant infections and resulting deaths in United States hospitals.

Drug resistance causes Medicare beneficiaries to spend hundreds of thousands of additional days in hospitals each year, costing taxpayers billions in additional health care costs annually.

Note: For more information, see the CMS publication entitled, Securing Access to LifeSaving Antimicrobial Drugs for American Seniors, available at

https://www.cms.gov/blog/securing-access-life-saving-antimicrobial-drugs-american-seniors  .