• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MassDevice

The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice

  • Latest News
    • Cardiovascular
    • Orthopedics
  • Wall Street Beat
    • Funding Roundup
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Podcasts & Webinars
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • About MassDevice
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Leadership in Medtech
    • Manufacturers & Suppliers Search
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Videos
    • Whitepapers
  • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
  • Coronavirus: Live updates
Home » Healthcare reform: What to expect in 2011

Healthcare reform: What to expect in 2011

January 3, 2011 By MassDevice staff

Healthcare reform

The healthcare reform act brought a wave of new regulations to the lawbooks as the new year rolled in, with a significant segment of the rules making changes to Medicare, the country’s largest payer of medical bills.

An effort to close the so-called “donut hole” of Medicare Part D commenced Jan. 1 for Medicare beneficiaries. Members of the federally-funded health insurance program will get a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescriptions while the government puts together additional changes. The discount is only applied to pharmaceuticals whose makers signed agreements with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The new rule could drive down prescription drug costs as much as $700 for a typical Medicare beneficiary.

A new Medicare reimbursement regulation that pays physicians to discuss end-of-life care options with patients and their families also takes effect. The provision was included in the original healthcare reform bill, but after reform opponents began referring to it as a "death panel," lawmakers felt compelled to remove it from the bill.

Primary-care physicians and general surgeons will begin receiving a 10 percent bonus payment for treating Medicare beneficiaries. Healthcare providers qualify for the bonus if 60 percent or more of their services provided are for primary care. Surgeons also will receive the bonus if they’re practicing in areas where physicians are in short supply.

Medicare recipients will begin to get free preventive services, including annual checkups, vaccinations and certain screenings, and their will be no more cost sharing for those items.

Since 2007 wealthier Medicare beneficiaries have paid more than the standard premium for Part B, which covers physician and outpatient services. The healthcare reform law froze the limit at the current level — incomes of $85,000 or above for individuals and $170,000 for couples.

A system called Medicare Advantage provides benefits to certain Medicare recipients through private insurance companies. Beginning Jan. 1, Advantage payments will be set at increasingly smaller percentages of the traditional Medicare fee-for-service rates, eventually eliminating an occasional discrepancy that resulted in over-payments to insurers and increased premiums.

CMS created a new Innovation Center that will serve as a testing ground for new practices. The 10-year, $10-billion effort lays a foundation for what experts believe could be one of the most far-reaching benefits of healthcare reform. The center aims to test new ways of delivering care to patients that reduce costs but maintain or improve quality. In one of the center’s initiatives, eight states will take part in a Medicare demonstration project that evaluates the performance of healthcare providers when they collaborate and receive coordinated payments.

Health insurance companies are now required to spend 80 to 85 percent of revenue on medical care and quality improvements for patients, not on administrative costs.

Beginning shortly after the Food & Drug Administration finalizes rules governing the disclosure of meals’ nutritional values this year, chain restaurants with 20 or more locations and owners of 20 or more vending machines will have to display calorie information on
menus.

The so-called Community Based Care Transitions Program also goes into action. The program was designed to improve care for seniors after they leave the hospital and reduce their re-admissions.

Filed Under: Healthcare Reform, Medicare, News Well Tagged With: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

In case you missed it

  • Zimmer Biomet narrowly avoids shareholder rebuke on executive pay
  • FDA says Philips ventilator recall produced over 21,000 device reports, 124 deaths
  • Boston Scientific’s Acurate Neo2 valve performs well in studies
  • MicroTransponder reports first commercial implantation of its stroke rehab neurostim system
  • Ambu replaces CEO with new leadership
  • Moderna’s first bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster candidate shows promise
  • AdvaMed joins Biden’s Joint Supply Chain Resilience Working Group
  • FDA clears Accelus’ Toro-L interbody fusion system
  • Teleflex’s UroLift cleared in China to treat BPH
  • Globus Medical announces first surgeries with Excelsius3D
  • Abbott reports positive data on heart valve therapies
  • OncoRes Medical raises another $12.5M
  • NeuroMetrix’s Quell neuromodulation device wins FDA de novo nod to treat fibromyalgia
  • Inogen appoints Agnes Lee as senior VP of investor relations, strategic planning
  • Google Health hires FDA’s chief digital health officer
  • ApiJect picks up $111M investment from Royalty Pharma, Jefferies
  • Expect more heart and lung failure years after COVID, Abbott’s heart failure CMO says

RSS From Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Zimmer Biomet narrowly avoids shareholder rebuke on executive pay
    An unusually large share of Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH) investors voted against the orthopedics company’s pay packages for top executives at the annual shareholder meeting. About 54% of voting shareholders supported the pay packages of the company’s five top-paid executives at the May 13 meeting, according to results filed with the SEC yesterday. In 2021, nearly 93%… […]
  • BD, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical partner on better materials for plastic syringes
    BD (NYSE:BDX) announced that it partnered with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company on applying new technology to pre-fillable syringes. MGC develops the Oxycapt technology designed to integrate the best of plastic and glass for plastic syringes. BD and Tokyo-based MGC will work together to apply Oxycapt technology to the next generation of pre-fillable syringes (PFS) for advanced… […]
  • Ambu replaces CEO with new leadership
    Ambu today said it has hired board member Britt Meelby Jensen to replace CEO Juan Jose Gonzalez, effective tomorrow. “Since Juan Jose Gonzalez joined as CEO in 2019, Ambu has made good progress and achieved important milestones on the strategic transformation into the world’s largest single-use endoscopy company,” Ambu Chair Jørgen Jensen said in a… […]
  • AdvaMed joins Biden’s Joint Supply Chain Resilience Working Group
    AdvaMed executive Abby Pratt has joined the executive committee for the Biden administration’s Joint Supply Chain Resilience Working Group, the medtech industry association said today. The working group’s members from government and industry will assist with implementation of the National Strategy for a Resilient Public Health Supply Chain. Pratt oversees supply chain issues as SVP… […]
  • Toray develops new stretchable film for medical devices
    Toray Industries has a new stretchable film based on its proprietary polymer Reactis technology, with potential applications that include robotics and biological and industrial sensors. Tokyo-based Toray said it shipped samples to customers and plans research and development efforts to commercialize the new grade of film. “Recent years have increased the potential for developing stretchable… […]
  • Google Health hires FDA’s chief digital health officer
    Former FDA Chief Digital Health Officer of Global Strategy and Innovation Bakul Patel has started a new job with Google after 13 years with the regulatory agency. Patel became senior director, global digital health strategy and regulatory for Google Health earlier this month, he said on LinkedIn. Patel recounted highlights of his “incredible journey since… […]
  • Expect more heart and lung failure years after COVID, Abbott’s heart failure CMO says
    Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we know more than ever about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and how quickly it moves to ravage the human body. What remains to be seen is how the virus — and perhaps more importantly, our immune system’s response to it — will affect the health of people long after infection,… […]
  • FDA moves forward with Voluntary Improvement Program to bolster medical device quality
    Kathryn Burke, Emergo Group The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued new draft guidance to establish a full-blown voluntary program for improving quality-related processes in medical device manufacturing following promising results of a pilot program. The FDA guidance stems from a pilot undertaken by the agency along with the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) in 2018.… […]
  • How Minnetronix Medical helped Lazurite with its wireless surgical camera
    Minnetronix Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) has played an important development and manufacturing partner role with Lazurite’s wireless surgical camera system. It’s been nearly two months since Lazurite (formerly Indago) announced FDA 510(k) clearance of its ArthroFree system. ArthroFree combines proprietary low-heat, high-intensity Meridiem light engine technology with advanced camera, battery and wireless transmission technologies and… […]
  • Instron releases TrendTracker data analysis workflow platform
    Instron announced that it released the TrendTracker module in Bluehill Central for accelerating data analysis workflows. Norwood, Massachusetts-based Instron designed TrendTracker with an intuitive interface to improve the data analysis workflow of single or multi-location materials testing laboratories. According to a news release, the platform features quick searching and the ability to display and analyze… […]
  • Henry Schein hires former Medline veteran to drive ‘One Distribution’ push
    Henry Schein (Nasdaq:HSIC) today named Dirk Benson as VP and chief commercial officer of the medical device manufacturer and distributor’s North America Distribution Group (NADG). Melville, New York-based Henry Schein is the world’s largest provider of health care supplies and services for office-based dental and medical practitioners, and NADG is the company’s largest business group. The… […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

DeviceTalks Weekly

May 20, 2022
DeviceTalks Boston Post-Game – Editors’ Top Moments, Insulet’s Eric Benjamin on future of Omnipod 5
See More >

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Need Medtech news in a minute?
We Deliver!

MassDevice Enewsletters get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need in med tech. Sign up today.

MDO ad

Footer

MASSDEVICE MEDICAL NETWORK

DeviceTalks
Drug Delivery Business News
Medical Design & Outsourcing
Medical Tubing + Extrusion
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
MedTech 100 Index
R&D World

Device Talks Webinars, Podcasts, & Discussions

Attend our Monthly Webinars
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
Join our Device Talks Tuesdays Discussion

MASSDEVICE

Subscribe to MassDevice E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Contact us
Add us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Connect with us on LinkedIn Follow us on YouTube

Copyright © 2022 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Advertise | Privacy Policy | RSS