Top Cardiology News for September 2026

So this month I covered some breaking news that we had been expecting, which was the announcement by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that it had finalized its update to the national coverage determination for TAVI.

One big change here is that patients with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis will now be covered, and that's something many physician and patient groups have been hoping for for many years.

The other big change is the removal of coverage with evidence development or CED requirements in symptomatic patients.

So eligible cases will no longer be required to be performed in the context of a CMS-approved study for these patients, but CED requirements will remain in place for asymptomatic patients.

A couple of other things to note that come along with this new decision memo is that while the concept and composition of multidisciplinary heart teams remains the same, CMS is now allowing for triage of patients from medical chart review with input from both cardiac surgery and interventional cardiology.

but there must be an in-person evaluation by a heart team TAVI operator.

And CMS clarifies this language in the memo by saying that the requirement cannot be satisfied through a virtual encounter.

They also updated the definition of a TAVI operator to include an interventional cardiologist or cardiac surgeon who performs at least 20 transcatheter valve procedures a year.

At least 15 of those must be a TAVI.

An operator also could be defined as someone who performs at least 40 such procedures every two years, with at least 30 of those being a TAVI.

So some big changes, especially for older patients covered by Medicare.

And we saw several major cardiology societies come out in support of these changes.

They say reflect many of the priorities that physicians groups have been asking for.

And so when you realize that the original NCD came out in 2012, it certainly has been a long time coming.

Thanks, Laura.