Medical Devices

As Republicans and Democrats have battled over reopening the federal government and raising the federal debt ceiling, one idea that keeps coming up is a repeal of the 2010 health law's tax on medical devices.

A non-profit organization focused on Internet security is looking to develop a set of benchmarks to protect medical devices from potentially fatal cyber attacks.

Florida's Baptist Health has devised a more efficient way to manage their medical devices and share risk, and it's helping them place real controls on capital costs.

Clinical trials are important to the development of new drugs, medical devices and procedures, but budgets for these trials are under increasing pressure.

States should adopt the Medicare competitive bidding payment amounts to purchase medical equipment instead of the higher Medicaid fee schedule amounts, according to a report from the HHS Office of Inspector General.

Venture capitalists invested $1.4 billion in 167 life sciences deals during the first quarter of 2013, a 14 percent drop in dollars and 16 percent slide in the number of deals, compared with last year’s first quarter.

With the European and U.S. healthcare markets working to reduce spending, the global medical device market reached $331 billion in 2012, a growth rate of 3 percent from 2011, according to Kalorama Information.

While the focus on many initiatives in transforming hospitals to an accountable care model has focused on IT tools and investments, the biggest challenge facing providers moving to an ACO model is managing the business process change, according to a new analysis by market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

The Office of Inspector General issued a "special fraud alert" cautioning that physician-owned distributorships (PODs) are "inherently suspect" under the anti-kickback statute and listing suspicious characteristics of these entities that may increase the risk of fraud and abuse.

A new report from the West Health Institute contends that improvements in the ability of medical devices and health IT systems to communicate and exchange data could lead to more than $30 billion a year in savings.