New report looks at the challenges facing hospitals as innovative, expensive medical devices come to market

A new white paper released earlier this week by Vizient shows how hospitals must evolve their processes in ways that will allow them to adopt emerging technologies that will support both patients and providers without posing a threat to their fiscal health. 

In the report, “The cost of medical device innovation: can we keep pace?” authors note that in recent years many highly innovative medical devices have been FDA-approved and are transforming cardiovascular care with advanced treatment options, improved quality of life and extended longevity for patients. Unfortunately, the report notes that reimbursement has often failed to keep up with many of these expensive treatment options.

“A critical question facing providers is when they should implement an innovative technology,” said Joe Cummings, technology program director for Vizient and a contributor to the white paper. “Physicians often want to be early adopters and have access to the latest technology because their goal is to always provide the best care for patients. But many potentially innovative technologies are never widely adopted for various reasons. To use a value-based evaluation paradigm, the hospital’s technology adoption committee must engage in a systematic review of the clinical literature to determine pertinent clinical outcomes and conduct financial analyses to estimate the total cost of care.”

Key findings from the report include:

·  An average 273.3 percent increase in price over the predicate medical device was found in a review of Vizient data for several recent innovative cardiovascular medical device introductions.

·  A review of select cardiovascular medical devices revealed considerable variability in the ratio of device cost to reimbursement. In fact, for some of the recent innovations, the device cost alone consumed a very high proportion of the overall reimbursement for the procedure, leaving minimal coverage for other expenses such as supplies, room costs and other miscellaneous resources required for the procedure.

· Hospitals, working collaboratively through multidisciplinary committees, must use a systematic, open and objective process focused on innovation assessments to determine which technologies provide better (optimal) patient care with improved value.

· Suppliers initially, then technology advocates, must provide better clinical data during the launch and early-adopter phases of a medical device introduction. The data must clearly demonstrate better outcomes to support informed decision-making by physicians and hospitals.

· Partnerships between providers and suppliers that allow for shared risk can help push both sides to improve quality and outcomes.