The Medicare coverage story of the Cardiomems device has a Homeric air about it, spanning nearly a decade starting with an adverse local coverage determination in 2016. Abbott Park, Ill.-based Abbott Laboratories finally brought the story full circle with a successful national coverage determination that gives the device nationwide coverage for Medicare patients without the need to wrangle with Medicare administrative contractors.

The discussion about taxpayer appropriations for CMS has been ongoing for decades, leading to futile speculation regarding user fees for the agency. Louis Jacques, who formerly worked at CMS, told BioWorld that Congress tends to be somewhat reactive when it comes to appropriations for CMS – a dynamic which suggests that appropriations for CMS are not likely to improve significantly in the near term.

Administrators at the U.S. Medicare program have proposed to cover the Cardiomems remote monitoring device for heart failure, but cardiologists are averse to several of the conditions spelled out in the draft coverage memo, including what they see as a somewhat futile demand for a comparator arm in the proposed coverage study.

Medicare coverage of FDA-designated breakthrough devices is still a policy hot topic. Although the House of Representatives generated some momentum on related legislation, the Senate is now examining the Ensuring Patient Access to Critical Breakthrough Products Act for potential passage in the lame duck session – a development that would draw enthusiastic cheers from industry.

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.

While the inpatient and outpatient final rules for 2025 are baked into the U.S. Medicare payment system, there are indications that Congress will consider legislation that would flatten rates across sites of service.

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.

The U.S. Medicare program has a notorious problem with regard to coverage of digital products and software as a service, but the agency is dependent on Congress to add new benefit categories via legislation.

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.