FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 21, 1999CONTACT: Linda Ruckel
202-434-7243
Bahar Morid
202-434-7273
MEDIA ADVISORY
WHAT: Patient, health care providers and company representatives join Senate and House sponsors to call for rapid enactment of legislation to end delays in getting medical technologies to Medicare patients. The legislation is "The Medicare Patient Access to Technology Act of 1999." WHO: Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN)
Pamela G. Bailey, President of the Health Industry Manufacturers Association
David R. Holmes Jr., M.D., Director of Cardiac Catheterization Lab, Mayo Clinic
Joy Drass, M.D., Vice President of Clinical Resource Management and Professional Services, Washington Hospital Center
John Rapp, Medicare recipientWHEN: Thursday, September 23, 1999 at 1:00 p.m. WHERE: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226
BACKGROUND Medicare beneficiaries are being denied life-saving and life-enhancing medical technologies because of the lengthy bureaucratic delays in approving coverage, coding and payment for these technologies. To clarify and speed up the process Senator Orrin Hatch has introduced the Medicare Patient Access to Technology Act of 1999." Rep. Jim Ramstad introduced similar legislation in the House in June. The legislation will:
- Shorten time frames to secure national coverage codes
- Retain flexibility at the local level for coverage of new technology
- Update payment systems annually
- Allow use of credible external information sources so that more data is available and decisions can be made faster
- Establish an Advisory Committee to make recommendations on streamlining coverage, coding and payment processes
- Reform Medicare's proposed hospital outpatient prospective payment system
### 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.