EXACT Sciences Corporation (EXAS): Reconsideration Update by Cable Car Capital
Disclosure: Short EXAS
As promised in my previous post, you may now download Cable Car’s public comment in response to statements made at the Public Meeting in July. Comments are normally available only through a FOIA request, but in the interest of transparency I wanted to share my views more broadly. I believe Kevin Conroy made several statements at the Public Meeting that are not accurate and deserve a public accounting. The comment letter discusses the legal basis for the reconsideration request, claims regarding compliance and cost-effectiveness, and additional cost analyses. Exact Sciences shareholders can take comfort in the fact that the company has impressive operating leverage, irrespective of the Medicare payment rate. The incremental cost per test in recent months appear to be less than $100.
Following the preliminary determination on the reconsideration request expected sometime in September, there will be an additional 30-day comment period before the 2016 fee schedule is finalized.
CMS Panel
This morning, CMS convened the first meeting of an advisory panel on Clinical Laboratory Diagnostic Tests. Steve Phurrough, the CMS Medical Officer who asked Conroy several questions at the Public Meeting that are addressed in my letter, chairs the panel but is not a voting member.
The panel was established under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA), which is also changing the rate-setting process for the clinical lab fee schedule beginning in 2017. Since the PAMA rulemaking is not yet complete, the purpose of this initial meeting was to provide input into the new codes for 2016 that were discussed at the Public Meeting in July. The panel’s recommendations are advisory and non-binding.
The bulk of today’s debate involved highly technical, controversial determinations regarding the most comparable tests, from a methodological standpoint, to use for several new test codes. Cost-effectiveness concerns were not mentioned at all.
Disappointingly, the panel’s brief discussion (starts at 1:26:30) of code G0464 resulted in an 11-0 vote, with 1 abstention (likely the representative from the Mayo clinic) from the 12 panel members present, in favor of maintaining the current crosswalk. More accurately, there was no discussion. The panel did not discuss their reasoning at all; the only comment was from one individual who questioned why code 81315 had no connection to colon cancer and such a high reimbursement level before voting to include it in the crosswalk anyway.
The panel members are all very well-respected scientific experts, but it does not appear that they devoted much, if any, deliberation to the substance of the reconsideration request. In particular, despite asking many clarifying questions regarding the most appropriate factors to consider for other tests, in the case of G0464 there was no debate whatsoever about the appropriateness of considering a test’s purpose, rather than its methodology, in assigning a crosswalk.
It is unclear whether or not the panel had the opportunity to review the reconsideration request in full or the further comment letter. As the panel’s recommendation is non-binding, I strongly urge CMS to take all available information into account in reaching its determination.
