CMS Decision - No material financial impact
June 05 2009 - 2:01AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMMDST
RNS Number : 4189T
Medicsight Plc
05 June 2009
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| Press Release | 5 June 2009 |
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Medicsight PLC
("Medicsight" or "the Company")
CMS Decision - No material financial impact to Medicsight
Medicsight PLC (AIM: MDST), an industry leader in the development of
Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) and image analysis software which assists
radiologists in the early detection of disease, comments on the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) decision not to reimburse virtual
colonoscopy (CT colonography or CTC) for the routine colon cancer screening of
Medicare patients in the U.S.
The CMS decision has no material financial impact to Medicsight and only affects
12% of the eligible screening population in the United States. CTC continues to
be reimbursed by Medicare for diagnostic procedures under certain
conditions. Furthermore, a significant number (over 50 million) of the eligible
screening population will have private insurance coverage that is likely
to
provide for CTC screening. Despite Medicare's decision, 28 US States (and
growing) currently mandate coverage for colorectal cancer screening, most
adopting the American Cancer Society (ACS) standards which include use of CTC.
A number of private payers have already started to offer CTC as a "covered
benefit" in their insurance policies and those payers, including
Wellpoint/Anthem, Cigna and several Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, representing
approximately 50 million covered patients. There are projected to be 65 million
U.S. residents aged between 50-64 by 2015. Currently 80% of this age group
currently has private insurance coverage according to Kaiser Permanente, a
leading US health insurance provider.
Allan Rowley, Chief Executive Officer of Medicsight, commented: "The Company is
excited about the enormous potential to improve colorectal screening compliance
with the use of screening CTC and has already begun working with various groups
to support coverage among non-Medicare payers."
Perry J. Pickhardt, MD., Associate Professor of Radiology at University of
Wisconsin, suggested: "To deny coverage for Medicare beneficiaries of a
potentially life-saving test that is better, safer, more convenient, and less
costly than invasive colonoscopy is clearly a misguided decision that should
ultimately be reversed by legislative correction"
Following the CMS decision, Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Texas),
commented, "There is clear evidence that when insurance reimbursement is
available for virtual colonoscopies, more people are screened for colorectal
cancer. Less than half of those who should be screened receive a colonoscopy. We
need to make sure more Americans are screened for this deadly yet preventable
disease." (1)
(1) WASHINGTON, D.C., May 12 2009 kaygranger.house.gov
- ENDS -
For further information:
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| Medicsight PLC | www.medicsight.com |
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| Allan Rowley | +44 (0)20 7605 7950 |
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| Daniel Stewart & Company PLC | |
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Simon Leathers / Charlotte Stranner | +44 (0) 20 7776 6550 |
+-------------------------------------------+----------------------------+
Media enquiries:
+-----------------------------------------------+------------------------+
| Abchurch Communications | +44 (0) 20 7398 7700 |
+-----------------------------------------------+------------------------+
| Heather Salmond / Stephanie Cuthbert / Simone | +44 (0) 20 7398 7718 |
| Alves | |
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| stephanie.cuthbert@abchurch-group.com | www.abchurch-group.com |
+-----------------------------------------------+------------------------+
Notes to editors
Medicsight PLC is a UK-headquartered, research driven, leading developer of
computer-aided detection (CAD) and image analysis software for the medical
imaging market. The CAD software automatically highlights suspicious areas on
computerised tomography (CT) scans of the colon and lung, helping radiologists
to identify, measure and analyse potential disease and early indicators of
disease. Medicsight's CAD software has been validated using one of the world's
largest and most population diverse databases of verified patient CT scan data.
Medicsight's ColonCAD(TM) and LungCAD(TM) software products are seamlessly
integrated with the advanced 3D visualisation workstations of several
industry-leading imaging equipment partners.
About Computer-Aided Detection
With increasingly sophisticated radiological imaging hardware such as
Multi-Detector CT scanners, radiologists are facing a growing challenge in the
amount of detailed patient image data that they must review for each patient
examination. Some CT scan examinations generate as many as 2000 images per
patient. Review of this data by the radiologist is not only time-consuming but
also prone to error due to reader fatigue. CAD software can help the reviewing
radiologist by analysing the image data and automatically highlighting
suspicious regions of interest for closer inspection. Without CAD software some
potential abnormalities or areas of disease may be overlooked. This can be
critical for diagnosis and the management of patient outcomes as early detection
of disease greatly increases the probability of successful treatment and a
positive therapeutic outcome. In addition to supporting individual radiologists
CAD also has the potential to help standardise CT interpretation across both
individuals and institutions thereby supporting population based screening
programmes.
About Medicsight's CAD software
Medicsight's ColonCAD(TM) and LungCAD(TM) software use an advanced CAD algorithm
to analyse CT scans of the colon and lung and automatically highlight suspicious
areas that may be indicators of disease. CAD may highlight areas easily
overlooked by the reviewing radiologist, such as small lesions or regions that
are hidden from view behind folds in the colon or normal structures and
surrounding tissue in the lung.
Both CAD products seamlessly integrate with the advanced 3D visualisation
platforms of industry-leading imaging equipment partners. The integrated systems
provide sophisticated image viewing capabilities, including 3D reconstructed
image data, with the added advantage of demonstrating automatic CAD findings to
assist clinical end users in the detection and analysis of disease. This allows
clinical end users to perform either a 'second read', where CAD findings are
displayed to the user after completion of an initial review of the CT scan data,
or a 'concurrent read' where CAD findings are displayed during the user's
initial review of the original CT scan images.
Since inception, Medicsight has developed close and lasting relationships with
some of the world's foremost clinicians in product related areas. This provides
the Company with a wealth of clinical expertise and dedicated clinical research
to support ongoing product development. Medicsight also collaborates with a
number of leading academic institutions and clinical research programmes
worldwide to develop the Company's comprehensive database of population diverse
verified patient CT scan data, thus allowing Medicsight's products to be
validated to the highest possible standards.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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