What we did and did not learn at AdvaMed 2014 (OrthoSpineNews)
The annual meeting of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, or AdvaMed, doesn’t include a lot of mind-blowing news, but there are often developments worthy of note.
Following are a trio of stories addressing what was (not) said, and a few things to watch for over the next year or so.
Physician payment sunburn?
As reported by Medical Device Daily executive editor Holland Johnson in the Oct. 8 edition of MDD, Covidien’s chief medical officer Michael Tarnoff had a few interesting observations about sustainability. Tarnoff said docs are accustomed to getting what they want, but that the push by payers for more evidence will cut into those wish lists.
On the other hand, the doc payment database mandated by the Physician Payment Sunshine Act has Tarnoff concerned that physicians will kiss device development goodbye. Not a good move, said Tarnoff, because device developers will be “flying blind without healthcare professional input.”
Are Tarnoff’s fears well founded? I guess we’ll see, but AdvaMed did argue a week or so back that CMS was not including all the data supplied by industry and that hence the doc payment suns...
