CMS established a national billing code and associated payment under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System for algorithmic analysis of coronary artery calcium and aortic valve calcium on chest CT, effective April 1, 2026. The company separately received FDA clearance for Bunkerhill Contrast CAC and Bunkerhill Contrast AVC, which it states are the first AI algorithms cleared to detect and quantify coronary artery calcium and aortic valve calcium on contrast enhanced, routine non gated chest CT, extending prior clearances that covered non contrast chest CT.
Our readTwo things changed here and the second matters more. FDA clearance on contrast enhanced non gated chest CT means the algorithm can run opportunistically on scans a health system is already acquiring for other reasons, rather than requiring a dedicated gated cardiac study. That converts an existing imaging volume into a screening surface without new acquisition cost. The CMS billing code is the rarer event: most healthcare AI carries no reimbursement pathway at all and must be justified purely on internal ROI, so a national OPPS payment moves this from a cost center argument to a billable service line. Buyers evaluating this platform should separate the two economic questions, since the reimbursement applies to specific algorithmic analysis and not to the cost of licensing the platform itself.