Stanford Biodesign Hosts Deep-Dive AMA CPT Webinar; And Another on FDA & Innovation

Not brand new, but new to me, on September 27, 2021, Stanford Biodesign hosted a webinar with several AMA CPT executives on the present and future scope of AMA CPT.  (See also my link to their FDA webinar, below).

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Definitely worth tracking, and the run time of 1 hr 50 minutes - longer than many movies - suggests how much material there is to cover.  Speakers included Laurie McGraw, Kenyetta Jackson, Leslie Prellwitz, and Jay Ahlman of AMA, as well as Josh Makower, head of the Byers Biodesign center, and Andrew Cleeland, CEO of the Fogarty Institute (also for medtech innovation.)  Find the webinar at YouTube here.

Overall, it's a very important webinar.  It gives you a lot of insight into how AMA thinks and its vision for improvements to the AMA CPT.  

I could quarrel with some of the AMA "spin" for example, they rebut the impression that Category III codes are very hard to get paid for, noting over $200M of payments in a recent year.  Yes, but.  I did a recent analysis showing that of several hundred Category III codes, 95% of all services went to just 7, and of that, 70% went to only 3 iRhythm codes, CPT codes that are not longer in Category III by 2021.   Thus, it remains true that, at least in CMS data, the great majority of the Cat III codes get paid either nothing or very little.  Blog with data tables here.  Updated in brief for CY2020 here.

Also of High Interest - Scott Gottlieb Webinar on "FDA and Innovation"

Also of interest, see a Scott Gottlieb webinar at Stanford Biodesign on FDA & innovation; recorded January 2021.  Here.  Also an excellent presentation.

Gottlieb was strongly in favor of "Medicare Coverage for Innovative Technologies," MCIT, and discusses that at some length.  Also, the role of FDA in sending important signals that lead to the most effective R&D investments.  

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See the homepage for Stanford Biodesign at YouTube here.  More detail on the CPT webinar here.