Blue Shield establishes practices for CED

Blue Shield of California has established new procedures for coverage with evidence development (CED), and looks to be among the first private commercial payers to adopt such a practice.

CED has traditionally been used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to reimburse for services, devices or drugs where there is limited evidence of their benefit in the Medicare population. With CED, CMS will reimburse for an intervention if an individual is enrolled in a clinical trial designed to collect evidence of benefit (see BioCentury, April 9, 2012). ...