CMS won't change its current rule for approving intestinal transplant facilities, the agency announced in National Coverage Decision memo 168. Medicare only allows intestinal and multi-visceral transplantation in facilities that have at least 10 intestinal transplants a year. Also, the facilities must have a one-year "actuarial survival rate" of at least 65 percent, meaning two-thirds of patients live a year after the procedure.
Providers had asked CMS to loosen the criteria for transplant facilities, but the agency reviewed the evidence and decided that the evidence supported the current policy.