FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 29, 1999

CONTACT:Karen Alcorn (202) 434-7240 Linda Ruckel (202) 434-7243

DEVICE INDUSTRY COMMENDS CLINTON COMMITMENT TO PATIENT ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY: CAUTIONS AGAINST REPEATING PAST MISTAKES

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Health Industry Manufacturers Association (HIMA) today welcomed the President's commitment to improve Medicare patient access to the benefits of modern science, including promising new procedures and pharmaceuticals. "We are, however, deeply concerned with the Administration's decision to retain the government-run model for Medicare at a time when the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is failing to approve and pay for new medical technologies in a reasonable time period," said Pamela G. Bailey, HIMA president.

"Over the years, we have watched advanced medical technologies become walled off from seniors by a mounting morass of Medicare red tape," said Bailey. "It is one thing for Medicare to promise a benefit and quite another to deliver on that promise, as the experience of seniors trying to access new medical technologies attests."

"The lack of transparency and process within the HCFA labyrinth has resulted in lengthy delays in beneficiary access to needed medical treatments," said Dave Fleming, chairman of HIMA's payment and health delivery committee. Under the current Medicare system, medical technologies must pass through three separate and distinct procedural hurdles before they are made available to Medicare beneficiaries. For patients, this means waiting up to several years for an initial HCFA coverage decision for new technologies; delays on average of one year for appeals of coverage denials; and up to one to two years of additional bureaucratic review before assignment of payment codes and reimbursement rates.

HIMA is also concerned about certain aspects of the proposal for funding this benefit. "Medicare reform through budget cuts to providers and services has failed before, is failing now and will fail again. Now is the time to reject a borrow-from-Peter-to-pay-Paul approach to Medicare reform and instead give seniors the right to choose from a wide variety of plans, benefit packages, customer services and prices," said Bailey.

HIMA looks forward to working with Congress and the President to seize this opportunity to inject real competition into Medicare. "Real competition is what develops cutting-edge medical technologies and prescription drugs. Only real competition will guarantee these products actually get to the Medicare patient," said Bailey.

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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.