The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an update to the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model, a six-year effort to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare fee-for-service by using technology-enabled prior authorization for selected services.
CMS will delay prior authorization and pre-payment review for two services—deep brain stimulation for essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease, and percutaneous image-guided lumbar decompression for spinal stenosis—to allow more time for operational readiness. A new implementation date for these services will be announced in a future Federal Register notice.