The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has granted Viz.ai the first New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) for artificial intelligence software, the company announced today.
NTAP, part of the CMS inpatient prospective payment system, was set up to support the adoption of cutting-edge technologies that have demonstrated substantial clinical improvement and ensure early availability to Medicare patients. Viz.ai’s flagship product, Viz LVO, uses deep learning to communicate time-sensitive information about stroke patients to a specialist who can intervene and treat.
The company cited studies showing that the software improves clinical and financial outcomes by streamlining acute care, leading to shorter time to treatment, improved patient outcomes, reduced length of stay and an increased number of procedures. Medicare will now pay up to $1,040 per use in patients with suspected strokes.
“Viz is the first software that meets CMS’s strict substantial clinical improvement criteria,” said Jayme Strauss, executive director of Atlanta-based Neuroscience Piedmont Healthcare, in a news release. “The extra reimbursement will empower hospitals as they strive to improve outcomes for stroke patients especially during a pandemic where hospitals have the additional cost burdens associated with COVID. The Viz.ai platform provides the clinical improvement needed to improve a stroke program significantly and, with NTAP, hospitals can offer it without significant financial burden.”
The FDA granted de novo clearance for Viz LVO in 2018 as the first-ever computer-aided triage and notification software. Viz.ai is located in San Francisco and Tel Aviv and backed by Silicon Valley investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures, Greenoaks, CRV and Threshold.
