Medicare proposes reimbursement cuts for Abiomed’s Impella

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing to cut the reimbursement rate for treatment with the Impella heart pump made by Abiomed (NSDQ:ABMD), the company said today in a regulatory filing.

The federal health insurer last week released draft hospital payment levels for fiscal year 2018 slated to begin in October. The proposal, for treatment using the Impella pump under various scenarios, would cut 3 of the 4 categories, 1 by more than -51%.

The proposed rule is open for public comment until June 13 and is due to be released in August.

“Abiomed is reviewing the detailed data within the tables and will be discussing the appropriate [diagnostic related group] rates with CMS during the open comment period to confirm it accurately reflects the hospital resources required to treat these very ill patients,” the company said in the filing.

Here’s a look at the proposed changes for all hospitals in the Medicare & Medicaid systems:

Procedure	Current rate (all hospitals)	Proposed FY ’18 rate	% change
Impella assistance in catheterization lab only	$57,460	$57,622	0.3%
Impella implant with care after catheterization lab	$95,971	$63,487	-51.2%
Biventricular implant	$161,472	$152,464	-5.9%
ICU care and removal of Impella, after transfer from outlying hospital	$37,564	$39,474	4.8%

Abiomed said its model for the effect of the proposed changes, based on 100 sites that use the Impella device, shows that the rate for Impella with after-care would be cut by -53.4%:

Procedure	Current rate (100 Impella sites)	Proposed FY ’18 rate	% change
Impella assistance in catheterization lab only	$70,299	$69,455	-1.2%
Impella implant with care after catheterization lab	$117,413	$76,525	-53.4%
Biventricular implant	$197,548	$183,776	-7.5%
ICU care and removal of Impella, after transfer from outlying hospital	$45,957	$47,580	3.4%

ABMD shares closed down -0.7% at $124.61 apiece April 14.

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