RITA's RFA treatment for renal, liver tumors gets American Medical Association code, new Medicare payment levels

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Nov. 22 - RITA Medical Systems, Inc. announced Tuesday that the American Medical Association has assigned a new Current Procedural Terminology code, 50592, for percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of renal tumors. Following the association's action, Medicare issued new National Unadjusted Payment Rate Relative Value Units calculations for both facility and non-facility based percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment of renal tumors. The new code and payment levels become effective Jan. 1, 2006, according to a company news release.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also reconfigured the 2006 hospital outpatient payment for RFA of liver tumors. This reconfiguration, also effective Jan. 1, resulted in a 35% increase over 2005 levels in hospital outpatient payments for percutaneous liver RFA procedures and a 55% increase over 2005 levels in hospital outpatient payments for laparoscopic liver RFA procedures, officials said.

"The new renal CPT code is an important milestone for the application of radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of kidney cancer. We are particularly pleased that the Society of Interventional Radiology championed the cause of reimbursement for percutaneous renal RFA for their membership. We believe that interventional radiologists interested in performing RFA to treat kidney cancer will benefit from the implementation of the new reimbursement code," RITA president and chief executive officer Joseph DeVivo said in the release.

Recognition from the association's CPT Editorial Panel that renal RFA is appropriately recorded with a unique code is additional validation of the acceptance of the procedure among clinicians, DeVivo added.

"We believe that the improving RFA reimbursement landscape is due in part to the continuing clinical adoption of RFA, which we see reflected in our customer base," DeVivo said. "We are also very pleased at the rise in 2006 physician reimbursement for percutaneous and laparoscopic RFA for liver cancer. We believe that this increases the incentive for physicians to perform minimally invasive RFA procedures."

RITA, based in Fremont, Calif., is a medical device company focused solely on cancer therapies.

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