ASTRO's Regulatory Committee drafts and submits letters on behalf of the membership in response to Local Coverage Determinations and National Coverage Determinations that are published by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and third-party carriers. As stated on the CMS's Web site, “Medicare provides coverage for items and services for over 43 million beneficiaries. The vast majority of coverage is provided on a local level, and developed by clinicians at the contractors that pay Medicare claims. However, in certain cases, Medicare deems it appropriate to develop a national coverage determination for an item or service to be applied on a national basis for all Medicare beneficiaries meeting the criteria for coverage. This page provides general information on a various parts of that NCD process, resources of both a general and historical nature, and summaries and support documents concerning several miscellaneous NCDs.”
To review the comment letters that ASTRO has submitted in response to these coverage determinations, please see below:
- ASTRO Submits Comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on a potential National Coverage Determination (NCD) for proton therapy for prostate cancer (9/08)
- ASTRO Submits Comments to Highmark: Draft LCD R-13 on Radiation Therapy Services (4/08)
- ASTRO Submits Comments to Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Montana on Radiation Treatment Management (11/06)
- ASTRO Submits Comments to Cahaba Government Benefit Administrators on their Draft LCD for IMRT (05/06)
- ASTRO Submits Comments on the BlueCross/BlueShield of Arkansas Draft LCD on Radiation Oncology (02/06)
If you would like to learn more about Local and National Coverage Determinations, please visit the CMS Web site.