Medicare Increases Hospital Reimbursement Rates for Prostate Cancer Cryoablation

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have increased their hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgical center reimbursement rates for cryoablation treatments for prostate cancer. The new rates, which were proposed in August and will go into effect in 2008, were confirmed on November 1, 2007.

The new 2008 CMS rates for prostate cryoablation performed in an outpatient hospital setting for patients who do not stay overnight, under APC code 674, were raised from $6,685.05 to $7,816.10, a 16.9% increase. The cryoablation rates for ambulatory surgical centers, known as ASC code 55873, were raised from $1,339.00 to $6,219.63, an increase of 364%.

Endocare Chairman, CEO, and President Craig T. Davenport said: "We believe these changes underscore the fact that cryoablation is becoming a more accepted treatment with physicians and continues to receive positive reimbursement from CMS. We are very pleased that hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers will receive these increased payments and know these changes will assist Medicare members to obtain cryoablation treatment in these outpatient settings."

Cryoablation is a minimally invasive treatment that uses the Endocare CryoCare Surgical System to precisely target, freeze, and destroy cancerous tissue.