Medicare Expands ICD Coverage After NEJM Study

Medicare will pay for thousands of patients to receive implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) after a study found the device can reduce the risk of death by 23% in patients who suffer heart failure.

Medicare officials said that the federal government would expand the number eligible to receive ICDs by a third to nearly 500,000 patients.

The expanded coverage decision came after the New England Journal of Medicine reported the results from a 2,521-patient study that examined whether ICDs reduced the number of deaths from sudden cardiac arrest in patients with moderate heart failure. Mortality rates were compared with those of patients who received only conventional drug therapy.