NTAP Means SAINT Treatment for Depression can be Paid By Medicare in the Hospital

A victory lap update.

The Frontier Psychiatrists is a daily health-themed publication. It does some advocacy!

A couple of months back, my readers will remember I was advocating for open comments, regulations.gov, supporting “the new technology add-on payment program” or NTAP application for Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Treatment.

The short version is that Medicare would pay more for people with Medicare to have fMRI-guided accelerated brain stimulation in the hospital. Treatment similar to this has existed in the outpatient setting, but historically, people must pay out-of-pocket.

Hospitals couldn't give the best treatment because there was no way to have it reimbursed. Now, they get paid more to do it. This resulted from my readers—and others— leaving comments on regulations.gov. Those comments changed what is possible in inpatient psychiatry.

79% remission of treatment-resistant depression with only five days of treatment. This is a change. Subsequently, category III CPT codes were …