Posted by Michael Wonder on 14 Mar 2017
Push to cut costs of medical devices
15 March 2017 - Health Minister Greg Hunt has called for fresh data on the cost of medical prostheses in public hospitals, signalling that the federal government will consider additional measures to reduce the high price of similar devices in the private sector.
As a Senate committee today holds its first public hearing on problems with the private sector’s regulated Prostheses List, Mr Hunt has commissioned a report on the issue from the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.
Faced with complaints from insurers that the high cost of prostheses was helping drive up premiums, the government last year initiated several reforms to the list. Then minister Sussan Ley legislated to cut the price of cardiac devices and intra-ocular lenses by 10 per cent, and hip and knee prostheses by 7.5%, to save insurers $86 million in the first year alone, and also revamped the Prostheses Listing Advisory Committee.
