FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 23, 1999

CONTACT: Linda Ruckel 202-434-7243 Lruckel@himanet.com Bahar Morid 202-434-7240 Bmorid@himanet.com

HIMA APPLAUDS SENATOR HATCH'S LEGISLATION TO INTEGRATE
MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY INTO THE MEDICARE SYSTEM AND HOSPITAL
OUTPATIENT SERVICES

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Health Industry Manufacturers Association (HIMA) strongly endorses Senator Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) legislation, "The Medicare Patient Access to Technology Act of 1999," to speed access to medical technology for Medicare beneficiaries. The legislation will streamline Medicare's payment and coding systems and make improvements to its proposed hospital outpatient payment services.

Today, once a device clears FDA, it can take more than four-and-a-half years to work its way through the HCFA coverage process. "In real-world terms," said Pam Bailey, president of HIMA, "the slowdowns in Medicare systems translate into lost opportunities to save lives, reduce hospitalization, and improve quality of life. But these slowdowns run even deeper. They retard the medical device innovation cycle and make it much harder for device companies to generate the revenues to plow back into R&D-and into innovations for the future."

Before medical products can reach Medicare patients they must endure a lengthy and bureaucratic process. They first must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Next Medicare must "cover" the device. Then the device needs to be assigned a procedure code which identifies the technology and assigns it to a payment category.

In short, many obstacles must be overcome and delays at any of these steps ultimately mean delays in patient access to needed life-saving and life-enhancing medical technologies.

Since medical technology is changing at such a rapid pace, the prompt integration of these technologies into the Medicare system is of the highest importance. Senator Hatch's bill addresses these problems by:

• Shortening the time frames to secure national coverage codes
• Retaining flexibility at the local level for coverage of new technology
• Updating payment systems annually
• Allowing use of credible external information sources so that more data is available and decisions can be made faster
• Establishing an Advisory Committee to make recommendations on streamlining coverage, coding and payment processes
• Reforming Medicare's proposed hospital outpatient prospective payment system.

"Technology moves forward," said Bailey, " Medicare doesn't. And if a new technology is caught in Medicare's grips, chances are, the new technology doesn't move forward either. This legislation empowers patients and providers by harnessing the profound benefits of modern medicine."

This legislation is the companion bill to Rep. Jim Ramstad's (R-MN) bill which was introduced in the House in June.

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The Health Industry Manufacturers Association (HIMA) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association and the largest medical technology association in the world. HIMA represents more than 800 manufacturers of medical devices, diagnostic products, and medical information systems. HIMA's members manufacture nearly 90 percent of the $62 billion of health care technology products purchased annually in the United States, and more than 50 percent of the $147 billion purchased annually around the world.