Impulse Dynamics Inc. snared an affirmative Medicare coverage policy for its Optimizer cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) system, giving the company sole possession of the U.S. marketplace for this therapy at least for the time being.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a recent report that the Medicare national coverage determination process could use a few adjustments, but the report also pointed to significant resource problems associated with the process, a source of drag that only Congress can fix.
A group of stakeholders including medical device makers have penned a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz to urge the agency to cover breakthrough medical devices, an attempt to resurrect administrative action on a question that legislators failed to address in 2024.
Regulatory approval for medical products can rely on real-world data (RWD) typically only for expanded indications for use, but payers have been missing in action where this data source is concerned. The U.S. CMS has floated a guidance to facilitate the use of RWD in coverage decisions, providing a long-overdue update to Medicare clinical trial policy.
Makers of devices and diagnostics face a new set of policy questions following the 2024 U.S. general elections, but many of the impending changes at the executive branch seem directed more toward drugs and vaccines, seemingly leaving the device and diagnostics industries largely out of harm’s way.
FDA commissioner Bob Califf made it his mission to counter medical and food product misinformation, and described the dilemma as an emergency at an Oct. 28 public meeting.
Edwards Lifesciences Corp. made a splash recently with the U.S. FDA approval of the Evoque tricuspid valve replacement device, but is also pressing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide a coverage framework for this class of devices.
The U.S. CMS announced the release of the Transitional Coverage for Emerging Technologies policy, which is less than clear on the definition of a key term.
The coverage with evidence development (CED) process employed by the U.S. Medicare program may suffer from underutilization, but the authors of a new article in Value in Health see the attendant problems as administrative in nature. The issues include, but are not limited to, a lack of predictability as to when a CED study would be required for coverage of a medical device.
The pilot version of the U.S. FDA’s advisory program for breakthrough medical device life cycle management was initially limited to cardiovascular devices, but the agency has announced an expansion into other product areas. Going forward, orthopedic, radiological and ophthalmic devices will be eligible for the FDA’s Total Life Cycle Advisory Program, which will aid applicants in obtaining both faster and more trouble-free market access.
