Medicare Increases 2008 Hospital Reimbursement Rates for Cryoablation Treatments of Prost...( Hospital Outpatient Rates Increase N...),Health

Hospital Outpatient Rates Increase Nearly 17 Percent; Ambulatory Surgical

Centers Increase 364 Percent

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Endocare, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENDO), an innovative medical device company focused on the development of minimally invasive technologies used by urologists and interventional radiologists for tissue and tumor ablation, announced today that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have increased their hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgical center reimbursement rates for cryoablation treatments for prostate cancer. The new rates, which were proposed in August and will go into effect in 2008, were confirmed on November 1, 2007 and will be published in final regulations documenting these payment increases in the Federal Register on November 27, 2007.

The new 2008 CMS rates for prostate cryoablation performed in an outpatient hospital setting for patients who do not stay overnight, under APC code 674, were raised from $6,685.05 to $7,816.10, a 16.9 percent increase. The cryoablation rates for ambulatory surgical centers, known as ASC code 55873, were raised from $1,339.00 to $6,219.63, an increase of 364 percent.

Endocare Chairman, CEO and President Craig T. Davenport said: "We believe these changes underscore the fact that cryoablation is becoming a more accepted treatment with physicians and continues to receive positive reimbursement from CMS. We are very pleased that hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers will receive these increased payments and know these changes will assist Medicare members to obtain cryoablation treatment in these outpatient settings."

Cryoablation is a minimally-invasive treatment
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