CBIC publishes how CMS will get utilization data for codes with no history
Policy article · normal importance
- Announced
- 2026-04-02
Bidders asked how CMS would supply utilization information for codes that had no 2025 history, and how it would pick a lead item from three codes that did not exist a year earlier. CMS answered on the same page. It would announce lead items for the competitive bidding product categories in late spring or early summer of 2026, and for the Hydrophilic Urinary Catheters category it would use the latest data available at that time, including partial 2026 claims data for A4295, A4296 and A4297.
Two things are worth noting beyond the answer itself. Hydrophilic Urinary Catheters is a distinct Round 2028 product category, separate from Urological Supplies. And the answer is dated by its own terms: the announcement window it describes has closed, and the page carries no publication date of its own, only a footer stamp reading Updated 04/02/2026, which is the date recorded here.
Codes this entry bears on
Sources
- [1] Round 2028 bid preparation FAQ: utilization information and lead items for the new hydrophilic catheter codes · Competitive Bidding Implementation Contractor (CBIC), for the CMS DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Program · checked 2026-08-07
HTTP 200, 28,068 bytes on 2026-08-07; a plain fetch works. The page footer reads "Updated: 04/02/2026", which is the date used here. IT IS A QUESTION AND AN ANSWER, not an open docket item: CMS responded on the same page, and any summary describing the lead-item question as unanswered is reading only the title. The answer is time-limited by its own terms, promising an announcement in "late spring/early summer of 2026", so re-check before relying on it.