CMS WILL COVER SOME STENTING PROCEDURES

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has determined that using stenting with intracranial percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) -- a procedure for enlarging a narrowed artery -- is "reasonable and necessary" for treating patients with more than 50 percent cerebral artery stenosis, which is a narrowing of part of the carotid artery that supplies blood to the head and neck.

The treatment can be covered when it is provided in accordance with FDA-approved protocols governing Category B investigational device exemption clinical trials, the CMS said this week. "All other indications for PTA with or without stenting to treat obstructive lesions of the vertebral and cerebral arteries remain noncovered," the agency noted.

In this analysis, the CMS is evaluating intracranial artery stenting separately from carotid artery stenting, since the former is "more technically difficult and has more inherent risks," the agency said.

The CMS decision can be viewed at www.cms.hhs.gov/mcd/viewdecisionmemo.asp?id=177 (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/mcd/viewdecisionmemo.asp?id=177).