The Approval and Reimbursement of New Therapeutic Apheresis Procedures

Abstract

Therapeutic apheresis is approved as an essential therapy in many therapeutic procedures and in the guidelines of several scientific societies. In contrast to what happens in many Western Countries, in Italy therapeutic apheresis is not regulated by an adequate legislation for the modern needs. This gap in the national healthcare system has been filled in some regions, only partially and in different ways, by issuing LEA confined to the territory of the single region. This has created a clear inequality in patients' treatment depending on their region of residence; to overcome this issue, the Italian Society of Nephrology and the Italian Society of Hemapheresis have proposed, together, a standard for patients' identification and charging that allows leveling out reimbursement and feasibility of this procedure on the whole national territory.