Brain cancer treatment assigned new DRG

Now Medicare patients with brain cancer will be able to benefit from Guilford Pharmaceuticals’ brain implant wafer. The government has created a new classification for it*–and that means hospitals will receive higher payments for using the GLIADEL(R) Wafer for Medicare beneficiaries with newly diagnosed high-grade malignant glioma. The brain implant wafer is designed to be used in combination with surgery and radiation.

* DRG 543, Implantation of Chemotherapeutic Agents or Acute Complex Central Nervous System Principal Diagnosis