Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Primary Refractory or Relapsed Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma with B-cell or T-cell Origin Open Public Meeting - August 25, 2022 - JF Part A

Jocelyn Fernandez:
Well, good morning, or good afternoon, depending on where you're calling from. My name is Jocelyn Fernandez, I'm one of the Medical Policy Specialists here at Noridian Healthcare Solutions.

Before we begin the meeting, I would like to make the following announcements.

The meeting will be recorded. The audio recording and written transcript will be posted on our website following today's meeting.

All lines are currently being muted and will remain muted throughout the meeting.

All comments should be submitted in writing and will be recorded in the Response to Comments article.

I will now turn this meeting over to our Contractor Medical Director, Dr. Gary Oakes. Dr. Oakes you may begin.

Dr. Gary Oakes:
Thank you, Jocelyn and thanks to those that took time out of your day to join us.

We did not have any one sign up to present.

So, I'm going to do just a couple of quick comments.

I did want to thank Dr. Capehart one of my colleagues for helping me tweak some of the wording and make it a little more succinct, but without changing any of the intent.

This policy was requested by the American Society of Hematology if we're noting that some facilities were uncomfortable allowing procedures to go forth in their facilities without some assurance of payment.

So, we felt that it was appropriate for patient care to get this out there as quickly as we could.

We did have one concern that was voiced to us, and that's the possibility of this interfering with the National Coverage Determination.

The Noridian team took this to CMS and to the Coverage and Analysis Group, and they are very comfortable that this does not in any way supersede or otherwise conflict with the NCD, dealing with stem cell transplants.

So, we were very pleased that they agreed with us.

With that and being that there's no presenters, we will go ahead, I'll turn this back to Jocelyn to conclude the meeting.

Comments in writing will be accepted, but she'll tell you more about that, So, Jocelyn, back to you, thank you.

Jocelyn Fernandez:
Alright. In closing, I would like to communicate the next steps in the policy development process.

The comment period for the proposed LCD will remain open until September 17, 2022.

All comments to be considered by our Medical Directors for the proposed LCDs must be submitted in writing. Written comments can be e-mailed to policydraft@noridian.com or mailed to the address on your screen.

Comment information for our proposed LCDs is located on our website at noridianmedicare.com.

Upon review of the comments, our Medical Directors will either finalize or retire the proposed LCD. Responses to comments will be viewable in the Response to Comments article.

Please monitor our website or register for list serv notifications to be informed of actions taken on our proposed LCDs.

And I will now turn this meeting back to Dr. Oakes for final remarks.

Dr. Gary Oakes:
OK thank you, and I really don't have many more remarks, and so in the interest of time, I will turn it back over and we'll conclude the meeting.

Thanks everyone that did attend, I appreciate you.