The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved the Lumason contrast agent (Bracco Diagnostics) on Oct. 12 and granted it pass-through status under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System.
Lumason is indicated for use in adults with suboptimal echocardiograms to opacify the left ventricular chamber and to improve the delineation of the left ventricular endocardial border, according to a news release.
With the approval, hospitals will receive $165.30 for the 5 mL vial if they use Lumason during an echocardiogram study. They will also be paid for the echocardiogram for Medicare patients.
In October 2014, the FDA approved Lumason for patients whose echocardiograms are hard to see with ultrasound waves. In three trials involving 191 patients with suspected cardiac disease, using Lumason helped doctors and independent reviewers see the lining of the left ventricle more clearly.
Bracco Diagnostics noted that Lumason should not be administered in patients with known or suspected right-to-left, bi-directional or transient right-to-left cardiac shunts or a history of hypersensitivity reactions to sulfur hexafluoride lipid microsphere components or to any of the inactive ingredients in Lumason.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.