Site neutral payments under the U.S. Medicare program have been contentious for some time, and Congress seems poised to act on the issue in 2025. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is wary of making any recommendations as yet — a position that MedPAC may hold pending the collection of additional data.

Medicare Advantage plans have drawn criticism for deviating somewhat from Medicare coverage policies, a question CMS took up in a recent draft rule. In comments to the docket, the Medical Device Manufacturers Association said it sees a need to throw a lasso around such practices, alleging that they may result in beneficiaries receiving more limited coverage than they would in fee-for-service care.

The U.K. Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency has provided guidance on what does and does not constitute a regulated digital mental health technology, but developers should be aware that promotional claims could push a product from the unregulated to the regulated category.

U.S. federal law is still lacking where AI is concerned, but California’s attorney general issued a bulletin that elevates the legal hazards of AI in medical use. The bulletin says that AI tools may not supplant a physician’s decision-making, a provision that would seem to render some FDA-cleared products illegal there.

President Donald Trump’s penchant for tariffs as a negotiating tool was on full display when he slapped a 25% tariff on products coming from Mexico and Canada – which may already been suspended in the case of Mexico. The actual impact of the tariffs on med tech is nonetheless tough to gauge due in no small part to the prospect that manufacturers will simply pass on at least part of the tariff to its customers in the U.S.

The EU’s Medical Device Coordination Group issued a guidance on the types of products that qualify as in vitro diagnostics (IVDs), including some important distinctions even in instances in which a given analyte is the subject of two tests.

A new guidance by the International Medical Device Regulators Forum for good machine learning practices draws heavily on a 2021 playbook provided by Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., an outcome that also supports the notion that there is no point in reinventing a highly functional regulatory wheel.

The EU has moved aggressively on legislation in recent years, with the AI Liability Directive serving as the latest example of legislation that sparked widespread opposition.

While the U.S. Supreme Court sidelined itself over patent issues such as subject matter eligibility, the diagnostic patent wars are still in full swing as a casual review of cases at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office discloses.