June 17, 2014 by Arezu Sarvestani
Medtech lobbying group AdvaMed releases a new study on industry pricing, arguing that medical devices represent a consistently small share of total healthcare spending in the U.S.
Medical device makers have long faced intense pricing pressure from customers and scrutiny from policy-makers, but an ongoing industry study suggests that medtech has for years been a minor factor in the growing cost of U.S. care.
Researchers for industry lobbying group AdvaMed released the 2nd edition of their pricing study, reporting that medtech represents a reliably small portion of total U.S. healthcare spending. Devices spending has grown from 5.3% to 5.9% of total national healthcare spending over a 23-year period spanning from 1989 to 2011, and most of that increased occurred before 1992, according to the researchers. Furthermore, their analysis found that medical devices have grown far more slowly than the Medical Consumer Price Index.
