Experience With Medicare's New Technology Add-On Payment Program

We describe the new technology add-on payment (NTAP) program used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide additional payment for breakthrough technologies in the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS). We also evaluate spending under the program. Our findings suggest that the criteria established by the CMS to limit qualifying technologies, combined with an improvement in overall payment adequacy for the new technologies that qualify for NTAPs, may represent important steps toward improving value in Medicare. [Health Affairs 27, no. 6 ( 2008): 1632-1641; 10.1377/hlthaff.27.6.1632]