New data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons/American College of Cardiology’s Transcatheter Valve Therapy (TVT) Registry show an inverse relationship between hospitals’ and operators' transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure-volume and the mortality rate associated with those procedures.
The New England Journal of Medicine published the results of the retrospective study online April 3, a week after the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed update to the national coverage determination (NCD) for TAVR. In the proposal, CMD plans to largely retain the minimum procedure-volume threshold requirements in the current NCD, which was enacted in 2012, but the new rules would make the specific requirements for centers starting a TAVR program more flexible