Debra Borchardt
According to Compass Pathways plc (Nasdaq: CMPS), the American Medical Association has approved a Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) III code for psychedelic therapies. CPT codes are essential for physicians and health care professionals when assigning treatment and seeking reimbursements from insurance companies.
The full details of the code are expected to be released by the AMA in July 2023, and the code will go into effect when it is published on Jan. 1, 2024.
“This is a major step forward to enabling broad and equitable access to psychedelic therapies,” said Kabir Nath, CEO, Compass Pathways. “This collaboration with MAPS PBC to develop a new CPT code aims to ensure that psychedelic therapies, if approved, could be integrated into health care systems, reimbursed by payers, and made available to the people who need them.”
The company said that the application for the new CPT III code was the result of a collaboration between MAPS PBC and Compass Pathways to facilitate reimbursement and ultimately access to psychedelic therapies in the U.S. if approved by the U.S. Food Drug Administration. Both companies say they are working to develop and, subject to FDA approval, commercialize psychedelics as part of a new treatment paradigm for individuals with mental health conditions.
“Psychedelic-assisted therapies represent a potential new frontier in the treatment of mental health conditions, and our top priority is ensuring there is a path forward to integrate them into the health care system, if FDA approved,” said Amy Emerson, CEO, MAPS PBC. “Strong collaborations like this one demonstrate that by working together, we can move closer to our collective goal of helping people currently underserved by existing treatments for mental health conditions.”
Compass Pathways is conducting a phase 3 program of investigational COMP360 psilocybin therapy in treatment-resistant depression, having already published positive results in the New England Journal of Medicine from its phase 2b study of COMP360 in TRD, in the largest study of its kind.
MAPS PBC has completed two phase 3 clinical trials evaluating MDMA-assisted therapy as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, both of which met their prespecified primary and secondary endpoints.
This new code may provide a mechanism by which these new treatments being developed by Compass and MAPS PBC could be reimbursed if they are approved by the FDA.
