The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has struggled to devise a final rule regarding regulation of ethylene oxide (EtO) after several years, a regulatory activity that has device makers concerned about domestic capacity for sterilization.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is once again in the crosshairs thanks to issues related to pharmacy benefits managers and coverage of novel medical devices, with Congress mulling over two dozen pieces of Medicare-related legislation.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is once again in the crosshairs thanks to issues related to pharmacy benefits managers and coverage of novel medical devices, with Congress mulling over two dozen pieces of Medicare-related legislation.
The proposed U.S. Medicare framework titled Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies (TCET) promises to expand on existing mechanisms for Medicare device coverage, but industry has serious misgivings about the proposal.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized the Medicare inpatient prospective payment system for fiscal year 2024 with a number of new and renewed new technology add-on payments (NTAPs) for the coming fiscal year. Controversially, however, the agency retained a proposal from the draft that requires that a product have received market authorization from the FDA by no later than May 1 of the prior fiscal year to qualify for NTAP payment, a provision that industry has blasted as exclusionary of products that merit an NTAP payment.
The U.S. FDA’s draft guidance for predetermined change control plans (PCCP) is a groundbreaking document for med-tech regulation, but stakeholders see a few holes in the draft version. One of the issues for device manufacturers is that the guidance seems to exclude any possibility of inclusion of a new intended use or indication for use in a PCCP, while others seek more detail on how this policy can be applied to the device component of a combination product, two elements that may prove complicated to address in the final guidance.
The U.S. FDA’s draft guidance for predetermined change control plans (PCCP) is a groundbreaking document for med-tech regulation, but stakeholders see a few holes in the draft version. One of the issues for device manufacturers is that the guidance seems to exclude any possibility of inclusion of a new intended use or indication for use in a PCCP, while others seek more detail on how this policy can be applied to the device component of a combination product, two elements that may prove complicated to address in the final guidance.
Sotera Health Holdings LLC has finalized a $408 million settlement for litigation over the company’s use of ethylene oxide (EtO) at a Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook, Ill., although litigation is still pending in connection with sites in other U.S. states. The news comes as med-tech trade associations register their disappointment with an EPA proposed rule for EtO that both the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) and the Advanced Medical Technology Association (Advamed) argue would crimp availability of sterilization capacity, which would in turn create shortages of medical devices and supplies that are desperately needed by patients.
U.S. Medicare coverage for breakthrough devices has been a hot topic for several years now, but industry is one step closer to making this policy dream a reality thanks to another new proposal from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The agency released a new version of the Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies (TCET) program that seems to satisfy most of what med-tech trade associations sought, but the catch is that manufacturers must notify CMS of their intent to take part in TCET a year before the FDA will decide whether to grant market authorization to the device.
A subcommittee of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee met to review the status of policies for novel medical devices and drugs, but a partisan rift was immediately evident at the hearing. House Democrats were generally in favor of more drug price negotiation power for the federal government and opposed to immediate Medicare coverage of breakthrough medical devices while Republicans generally steered in the opposite direction, suggesting that drug and device makers should not expect clear legislative sailing over the course of the 118th Congress.
