Michael Beebe: Hello, I am Michael Beebe, Executive Vice President of ADVI. Wrapping up 2024 and looking forward to 2025, I think in 2024, one of the more frustrating or challenging aspects of a lot of what we do is the process for obtaining CPT category I codes. Among the coding requirements is the need to demonstrate widespread use, and that has always been a very vague requirement. The CPT editorial panel has not spent much time or processes thinking about ways to better define it, and it continues to be an obstacle to obtain category I codes for new technologies. In 2025, I am looking forward to working with the panel in the American Medical Association to better define what they mean by widespread use, so that new technologies have a better opportunity to obtain CPT category I codes.

In 2025 on the policy front, I think there are currently three areas where we are currently experiencing potential challenges. Some of these are lingering from 2024 because nothing in healthcare policy moves that quickly. One of them is healthcare AI in the application of software and AI to support medical decision-making in improving patient outcomes. CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has been supportive of AI, but much of their support I think would be characterized as somewhat patchwork, where they are doing crosswalks to other existing codes for payment instead of taking the recommendations on the actual payment for the software itself.

Another big issue is digital health. I think there has been a lot of interest in digital health over the years, also known as prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs). Despite the interest, the investment, and the research in PDTs, there is still concerns about reimbursement. Medicare program does not have a defined benefit category to cover and pay for digital health. They are interested, in 2025 they have developed new programs to pay for digital health as part of the medical benefit of physician service, but many digital health products are developed with more of a pharmaceutical model in mind so the physician benefit is somewhat of an obstacle for many of the products currently.

Another area of interest that has been going on for a little while, but I think has become heightened by a new precision chemotherapeutics, these are chemotherapeutics that are delivered to the site of the tumor, and when you are talking about a novel delivery mechanism, it means that there are potential complications with paying for the drug and the procedure in the hospital outpatient payment system. Because frequently, the drug is packaged into the payment for the procedure. This is a significant problem for a lot of new and innovative approaches to treating cancer, and we need to make sure that the drug is paid for separately and is not packaged with the procedure.

My team and I are going to be working on these issues in 2025. We hope to make some progress, and hopefully this time next year I will be able to talk to you about our successes. ADVI as a firm is growing rapidly, we are very excited about the growth, and we are excited about the new clients that are coming on and the new teammates that are coming on. It gives us the ability and the opportunity to address new issues and make real progress for new and innovative healthcare. Thank you for all your support in 2024 and I look forward to continued success in 2025.

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