MEDICARE SCRUTINY PUSHES HEART, ORTHOPEDIC IMPLANT MAKERS TO STRENGTHEN WARRANTIES

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By Miriam Raftery

July 8, 2015 (San Diego’s East County)--Financial penalties imposed by Medicare on hospitals that have to readmit too many patients is having a positive impact. Scrutiny of readmissions is mandated under the Affordable Care Act.

Hospitals, seeking to protect their bottom lines, have been pushing for better guarantees from medical device manufacturers—and they’re beginning to see results.

Until now, patients with a failed medical device often had to resort to lawsuits to get compensation and warranties generally only covered the device itself—not the high cost of new surgery to remove a failed device and install a new one, or treat infections from items implanted into the body.  In other cases, insurance companies got stuck with the tab.

But now some manufacturers have agreed to strengthen guarantees and compensate hospitals if a device fails.

Reuters reports that Medtronic Plc, Johnson & Johnson and St. Jude Medical Inc. are among the first to improve their guarantees on heart devices—and some include sharing the cost of follow-up treatment with hospitals.  Some orthopedic implant makers are also considering offering similar agreements on knee and hip replacement parts.

But some say that doesn’t go far enough.

Hospitals however are seeking even more, wanting device makers to pay the full cost of new surgery to replace faulty products. 

The Consumers Union Safe Patient Project, however, wants to see warranties offered to patients, not hospitals.

 


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