From the May 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Thirdly, we are paying too much for medical devices. While there has been tremendous focus in recent years on the high cost of prescription pharmaceuticals and the drug industry’s efforts to increase profits, the medical device industry seems to have received a pass, and the result is that many device makers are not aligning their focus with their hospitals’ effort to provide better care with fewer resources. Medical device reprocessing, like generic drugs, provides a check and competitive market pressure to device costs and medical waste.
To policymakers, AMDR’s message is that the lack of transparency in medical device pricing and contracting hampers hospitals’ ability to reduce costs through negotiations, strategic purchasing and maximization of the value of the medical device assets they already own through reuse (reprocessing). In the terms of SUD reprocessing’s impact on the market, it is manufacturers, not the FDA, that determine if a device is to be marketed as reusable or single use. Some medical device makers have been able to increase their revenue at the expense of hospitals and their patient care efforts, by forcing obsolescence into their products. We cannot afford to throw away all SUDs after a single use: FDA’s process for clearing devices for reprocessing provides a pathway for avoiding this.
To hospitals, AMDR’s message is that reprocessing programs must be diligently managed. From our perspective, reprocessing provides a critical function in the larger medical technology and healthcare delivery process. By reprocessing expensive technology, hospitals and device makers can speed up the adoption of new technologies and procedures, giving greater access to more patients: By lowering the cost per use of a device, thereby lowering the procedure costs, reprocessors can work with hospitals to help bring greater access to novel or breakthrough technologies and procedures – improving patient care and outcomes.
Anti-reprocessing sales tactics employed by some manufacturers are designed to fuel greater sales and disrupt reprocessing. Hospitals must counter those tactics to maximize reprocessing and thereby promote quality and value. These three tips can help extract the most value from a reprocessing program:
