
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104130020
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

MEDICARE TO COVER LIVER TRANSPLANTS

Liver transplants may now be paid for by Medicare, federal officials said Friday. The transplants, usually costing more than $135,000, will be covered at hospitals that have demonstrated experience and good survival rates, and will be allowed for patients with a "critical need" and a "maximum likelihood" of recovery.

The new coverage is expected to cost the federal health program for the elderly and disabled $25 million this fiscal year, $55 million next year, $85 million in fiscal 1993 and $120 million in fiscal 1994.

Transplants performed as early as March 8, 1990, could be covered, the Health Care Financing Administration said in announcing requirements hospitals must meet to be approved as Medicare liver transplant facilities.

These hospitals will have to show that 77 percent of their liver transplant patients survive at least one year and that 60 percent survive at least two years, the HCFA notice said.

Currently, 73 U.S. hospitals perform liver transplants. As many as 30 of them may be approved as Medicare liver transplant facilities in the next two years, and more in later years, said HCFA chief Gail Wilensky, who directs the Medicare program.

Most private insurance companies cover liver transplants. The decision by Medicare officials to pay for them means they no longer consider the operation experimental.

by CNB