Limaca’s Precision-GI™ granted CMS Transitional Pass-Through payment

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has granted transitional pass-through payment for Limaca Medical’s Precision-GI™ motorised endoscopic biopsy device. Limaca’s endoscopic device is designed to obtain improved biopsy results for patients with suspected gastrointestinal cancers such as pancreatic, liver, and other GI-related and adjacent organs cancers and illnesses. The Precision-GI™ TPT grant is for up to three years beginning January 1, 2025, thus supporting patient access to Limaca’s new and innovative technology; previously, Precision-GI™ was granted the FDA’s Breakthrough Device Designation in 2022 and received clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2023.

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“Receiving TPT approval for our Precision-GI™ product is a major accomplishment for Limaca, enabling greater patient access to the breakthrough device, standardising higher quality outcomes for these critical endoscopic biopsy procedures, and reducing repeat procedures for patients anxiously awaiting diagnostic results for suspected pancreatic and other GI cancers,” said Limaca’s CEO Assaf Klein. “Very few products are granted TPT, and even fewer achieve both TPT and the FDA’s Breakthrough designation. We are proud of these achievements and deeply pleased that the CMS TPT grant will enable broad patient access to Precision-GI.”

The purpose of the TPT program is to support access to newly approved innovative technologies where the costs to adopt them may otherwise inhibit patient access. The TPT program reduces barriers for Medicare beneficiaries to access critical healthcare innovations shortly after products receive FDA approval by providing hospitals with additional payments to cover their costs, while allowing CMS to collect necessary cost data to determine future outpatient payments.

Endoscopic biopsy is a mainstay diagnostic procedure performed with standard manually operated needles threaded through the working channel of the endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) device to visualise and access the target suspect lesion. Due to Precision-GI’s motorised, automated, rotating cutting mechanism, much better quality tissue can be taken, with less blood content, in a single pass, saving critical procedure time and effort. A major benefit for patients over current endoscopic biopsy devices is the ability to consistently obtain superior volume and quality tissue acquisition needed for histopathologic and molecular analysis along with a high quality outcome, and standardisation across a broad variation of physician skill levels.