The CMS on Tuesday revealed the steps it will take to promote development of new antibiotics, including realigning financial incentives and looking at new stewardship guidelines.
In a blog post, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said that the majority of drug-resistant infections and related hospital deaths affect Medicare beneficiaries, and the agency wants to do its part to combat that threat.
The strategy includes the newly finalized Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule for fiscal 2020. The final rule will allow drugmakers to receive add-on payments for some new antibiotics even if they don't meet some U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical improvement criteria. That add-on payment will also be increased from 50% to 75%, Verma said.
Antibiotics historically didn't qualify for the add-on payment program because the financial incentives didn't align with stewardship efforts.
The CMS also finalized a change in the severity level designation for 18 ICD-10 codes for antimicrobial drug resistance from 'non-CC' to 'CC', which stands for complications or comorbidities and would increase payments for inpatient cases of antimicrobial resistance to give physicians incentives to use the appropriate drugs needed to treat such conditions.
But the IPPS rule didn't include antibiotic stewardship requirements, which raised concerns among advocates such as the Infectious Disease Society of America. The groups warned the rule wouldn't spur new antibiotic innovation that would help combat the most drug-resistant pathogens.
