"New Transcatheter Aortic Value Replacement (TAVR) National Coverage Determination a ‘Missed Opportunity’ to Align Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement (SAVR) & TAVR Quality" - Shelley Wood
The ink is not yet dry on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated national coverage determination for TAVR, but already a group of interventionalists and surgeons is calling for a rethink of how reimbursement rules and quality metrics are applied in the setting of aortic stenosis. Gilbert Tang, MD, senior faculty of cardiovascular surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said, “Right now, the issue is that there are a lot of surgeons out there who are quite resistant to this therapy, and of course, there is already an imbalance between interventional cardiologists and surgeons because typically interventional cardiologists refer to surgery and not the other way around.” He added, “It’s a sensitive issue, because if the interventional cardiologists try to question the surgeon’s decision-making, I think it’s going to potentially create more tension within the local heart teams or local institutions.”
— Gilbert Tang, MD, Surgical Director, Structural Heart Program, Senior Faculty, Cardiovascular Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai