WHITE PAPER ON ACCESS TO MECHANICAL THROMBECTOMY LAUNCHED

 

1.     Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in Australia, with a $6.2 billion direct financial cost and a further $26 billion in lost well-being and premature death.

2.     For several years now, mechanical thrombectomy has been considered a gold-standard treatment for this type of stroke. However, only a fraction of patients who would benefit are receiving the treatment, and there are significant inequities in access depending on where a patient lives.

3.     For some patients, this treatment can mean the difference between walking out of the hospital following a stroke or living with permanent and severe disability.

4.     Improving stroke outcomes for all Australians requires a system that gets the right patients to the right treatment centre as quickly as possible.

5.     The White Paper: Access to Mechanical Thrombectomy in Australia looks at the barriers preventing people from accessing treatment and proposes that a national strategy be developed to help overcome these barriers for all Australians.

The ANZSNR has endorsed the development of this White Paper.

We are pleased to announce that the White Paper has been launched and can be accessed at:

austrokealliance.org.au/white-paper/

New funding category for mechanical thrombectomy

The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) has just released its 2023-24 pricing determinations – this is the first publication that specifically references ECR and confirms an increase in funding. This funding will be applicable for procedures from 1 July 2023.

The new pricing is as below; (NOTE: these are averages, and final funding amounts will be influenced by the length of stay, time in ICU, time in ER etc.)

AR-DRG V11.0 Description ALOS (days) AVG Inlier Funding

B08A Endovascular Clot Retrieval, Major Complexity 9.3 $40,936

B08B Endovascular Clot Retrieval, Minor Complexity 4.1 $24,927

The value of this category will continue to change over the coming years as the system captures more cost and clinical data. An important next step is for INRs and stroke units to ensure that they are submitting detailed and accurate cost data to IHACPA.