Services and payments associated with the medicare new technology add-on payment program.

Abstract

In 2001, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services established the New Technology Add-On Payment (NTAP) program to incentivize access to costly new technologies for Medicare beneficiaries. These technologies, authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), must demonstrate "substantial clinical improvement" when compared to existing technologies. However, in FY2021, the FDA introduced two expedited authorization pathways, allowing technologies with either designation to bypass the "substantial clinical improvement" criterion. We describe the services and payments associated with NTAPs following this policy change.