As Congress brings drug makers, PBMs and others in the healthcare industry in for hearings on the rising cost of medical care, the medical device industry says its armed and ready to go, a top executive says.
Kevin Lobo, the CEO of the giant medical device maker Stryker, is ready to launch an educational campaign of members of Congress and the public at large on the share of medical spending device makers are responsible for in his new role as chairman of the board of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed). AdvaMed represents the world’s biggest medical device and technology companies including Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and hundreds of startups and smaller firms.
Though the price tag of a medical device can be four- or five-figures and certainly plays a role in the five-figure cost of a heart surgery, knee or hip replacement, it’s an innovation that tends to be a one-time expense for an insurer, the government or a one-time co-payment or deductible for a patient with coverage.
“And you don’t pay any more after that,” Lobo said in a conference call with healthcare reporters Friday as he begins his two-year term as chair of the board of AdvaMed. “We will make sure that is well understand especially among new members of Congress.”
The new AdvaMed chairman said the share of total U.S. health spending attributed to medical devices has been around 6% for three decades. And dipped to 5.2% in 2016, according to figures AdvaMed discussed Friday.
Lobo vowed to communicate medical device makers story on costs more loudly than in the past and “more directly” to Congress, particularly to the more than 90 new members elected in last year’s midterms.
By | Forbes
Image Credit: Stryker
