Late last month, Medtronic (Minneapolis) reported that it was cancelling several of its largest contracts with group purchasing organizations (GPOs) worth more than $2 billion collectively. Medtronic said the decision to cancel five contracts with Novation (Irving, Texas) and another with Premier (Charlotte, North Carolina) will save it about $60 million a year. Wall Street reacted positively to the news and some industry watchers are wondering if other companies will follow suit and bypass GPOs to sell products directly to hospitals. GPOs – which use high volume purchasing power to secure discounts for hospitals, introduce new devices to the market,...
The recess appointment of Donald Berwick, MD, to the administrator’s position at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last July roiled many members of Congress, and a recent Senate letter to the Obama administration expressing disfavor for Berwick’s continued presence at CMS may have finally lain to rest any chance that he had of a successful confirmation hearing. The letter, whose principal authors include Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), the ranking GOP member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the ranking GOP member of the Senate Finance Committee, cite Berwick’s “past record...
Patent reform legislation has been in the news quite a bit the past few weeks in the U.S., with both chambers of Congress working on legislation that could affect the way patents are currently registered. The U.S. patent system is currently based on a first-to-invent doctrine, which means that the inventor who first conceived of the invention and then reduced it to practice by filing a patent application is considered the first inventor and is entitled to patent protection. Every other country in the world, except the Phillipines, has a patent system based on the first-to-file doctrine, in which the...
In January when the FDA unveiled its 25-point plan to change the 510(k) clearance program, currently the quickest and most commonly used pathway to getting a medical device to market in the U.S., it appeared that a smooth landing might be in the works for the med-tech industry. That landing, however, was deferred, saddling the program with one of the greatest annoyances to any airline passenger, the dreaded holding pattern, when it was revealed that 30 other more controversial recommendations from the FDA working groups were being delayed. Among the most contentious recommendations being postponed was one for CDRH...
The passage of health care reform last year has given all the players in the health care field a new set of hurdles, albeit with many opportunities, that now must be negotiated, and Nancy-Ann DeParle, counselor to the president and director of the White House Office of Health Reform, discussed those issues as a luncheon keynote speaker during last week's J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO — A topic that has been of interest for some time, but has not come close to reaching its potential is healthcare information technology (HIT). The coming federally mandated adoption of HIT technology by hospitals and physicians may finally give this sector wings, and more importantly for investors, a pathway to profitability.(Medical Device Daily)
SAN FRANCISCO – The passage of healthcare reform last year has given all the players in the healthcare field a new set of hurdles, albeit with many opportunities, that now must be negotiated. Making her case for the reforms to a largely skeptical audience as a luncheon keynote speaker was Nancy-Ann DeParle, counselor to the President and director of the White House Office of Health Reform. (Medical Device Daily)
SAN FRANCISCO — In his opening remarks at this, the 29th edition of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Doug Braunstein, chief financial officer for the firm, briefly waxed nostalgic with a look back at the first edition of the conference back in 1983. He noted that first edition of the conference had only 21 presenting companies and the U.S. spent about $350 million on healthcare. Of that original list, he noted that only four companies remain independent entities. (Medical Device Daily)