Very Brief Blog: The Expedited Process for NCD Removal (2013 forward)

I was on a CMS call recently discussing the process for removal of an obsolete NCD. 

CMS published an updated NCD application process in August 2013, which includes a process for  deletion of obsolete NCDs after a short public comment period.   The August 2013 policymaking is online here (78 FR 48164, 8/7/2013).   NCDs can be removed because they are generally acknowledged as obsolete, because a product is no longer marketed, or because local contractor discretion would better serve the needs of the Medicare program.

CMS has thereafter used the obsolete NCD removal process at twice (home page for NCD removal, here).

• In November 2013, they published a list of NCDs for expedited removal, and allowed a 30 day public comment period.  See the document online here.  (The process generated 7 public comments, here.)  They deleted 5 of the NCDs shown below, keeping the ones on L-DOPA, Laser procedures, and Carotid function (here).   
• In November 2015, they proposed to delete the apheresis NCD and part of one other NCD (here), but they kept the apheresis NCD in place pending a fuller consideration than the expedited deletion process (here). 

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The expedited deletion process is administratively simple for CMS, as it allows CMS to propose NCDs for deletion with no further explanation of rationale than the implication that the NCDs meet at least one of the deletion criteria such as obsolescence.