Doug Kohrs, one of the founders of Responsive Orthopedics, pictured in 2016 with an artificial knee developed by the company.
Medtronic shuts division aimed at offering lower-cost orthopedic implants (StarTribune)
A Minneapolis medical device maker that was supposed to challenge the existing business model for costly orthopedic implants for the lower body is instead being closed by Medtronic, which acquired the business in 2016 but could never make it work.
Responsive Orthopedics, founded as a startup by entrepreneurs including Minneapolis med-tech veteran Doug Kohrs, designed a line of prosthetic knee and hip implants that were specifically engineered to have lower prices than the high-end implants that have long dominated the market. The cheaper devices were designed for “bundled payments,” in which hospitals receive flat payments for joint-implants regardless of the cost of the implant or the amount of follow-up care needed in the first 30 days.
Medtronic, which was an early investor in Responsive before acquiring the company outright, says federal guidelines for orthopedic joint replacements have changed. Those changes have caused implant pricing to become highly com...
