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

MassDevice

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

  • Latest News
  • Technologies
    • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    • Cardiovascular
    • Orthopedics
    • Neurological
    • Diabetes
    • Surgical Robotics
  • Business & Finance
    • Wall Street Beat
    • Earnings Reports
    • Funding Roundup
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Initial Public Offering (IPO)
    • Legal News
    • Personnel Moves
    • Medtech 100 Stock Index
  • Regulatory & Compliance
    • Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
    • Recalls
    • 510(k)
    • Pre-Market Approval (PMA)
    • MDSAP
    • Clinical Trials
  • Special Content
    • Special Reports
    • In-Depth Coverage
    • DeviceTalks
  • Podcasts
    • MassDevice Fast Five
    • DeviceTalks Weekly
    • OEM Talks
      • AbbottTalks
      • Boston ScientificTalks
      • DeviceTalks AI
      • IntuitiveTalks
      • MedtechWOMEN Talks
      • MedtronicTalks
      • Neuro Innovation Talks
      • Ortho Innovation Talks
      • Structural Heart Talks
      • StrykerTalks
  • Resources
    • About MassDevice
    • DeviceTalks
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Leadership in Medtech
    • Manufacturers & Suppliers Search
    • MedTech100 Index
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
Home » St. Jude reimbursement expert seeks Minnesota House seat

St. Jude reimbursement expert seeks Minnesota House seat

October 7, 2010 By MedCity News

MedCity News logo

Marion Greene has worked at both the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and General Mills, a food manufacturer that often is the target of CSPI’s wrath. She’s a non-Quaker that once toiled for a Quaker lobbying group. And she’s a medical device veteran who argues for a single-payer healthcare system.

“A liberal with an MBA!” reads her campaign flier for Minnesota state representative.

And barring last-minute acts of God, Greene, the Democrat-endorsed candidate from a heavily Democratic district in Minneapolis, likely will take her liberalism and MBA to St. Paul as the new occupant of former House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher’s seat.

So what kind of lawmaker will Greene be? I’m not sure even Greene knows. “I’m not someone who has a natural group because I’m just like them,” Greene said.

A reimbursement expert at St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ), Greene’s background in healthcare policy and medical devices could make her an important player in debates over health reform and ways to keep Minnesota’s edge in medical technology.

“I’m kind of excited to have that insider’s perspective,” she said.

Born in Connecticut to parents who worked in the U.S. Foreign Service, Greene grew up in countries like Pakistan, India, Brazil and Morocco.

After graduating from Swarthmore College with a degree in biology, and putting in stints with CSPI and the Friends Committee for National Legislation, Greene ended up with the Clinton-Gore Presidential Reelection Campaign in 1996.

Having dabbled in the art of communicating a message to a broad audience, Greene studied marketing at the University of Texas in Austin, where she received an MBA.

She moved to Minnesota and worked for Pillsbury Co. and then General Mills. But food soon bored her, so she pursued a career in medical devices with Guidant Corp. and now St. Jude Medical.

“You can have a cruddy day, but you can still get excited about a product that can save someone’s life,” Greene said.

An expert on winning reimbursement for medical devices, Greene says she generally supports the expansion of coverage under new federal healthcare law.

But she has two big beefs: The law doesn’t really address cost and it levies a $20 billion tax on the medical device industry to pay for it.

A liberal who strongly dislikes a federal tax on major corporations that subsidizes near-universal healthcare?

“Yeah, that’s unnatural for a bleeding-heart liberal,” she laughed.

So how does Uncle Sam pay for healthcare?

“In some way that’s not arbitrary,” Greene said. “It feels like people are throwing darts at a wall.”

In a way, the medical device industry has itself to blame, she said. For years, Big Pharma cultivated strong relationships with Congress “but took false steps that alienated lawmakers.”

But Big Pharma was smart enough to cut a deal with the Obama administration in the early days of the debate, Greene said. Unfortunately for Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) and St. Jude, whatever acrimony lawmakers originally felt for drug companies they now feel for medical device companies, she said.

Greene hopes to land assignments on House committees that focus on biosciences and health policy. She’s especially interested in evaluating the implementation of Minnesota’s 2008 healthcare reform law and steering investments toward high-tech research at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic.

But Greene says she is a realist.

“The budget will come before everything else,” she said.

Filed Under: Business/Financial News, News Well Tagged With: stjudemedical

More recent news

  • Medtronic earns CE mark for redo TAVI procedure
  • Natus Neuro launches BrainWatch AI-driven, point-of-care EEG
  • Boston Scientific has positive real-world Acurate Prime TAVI data
  • Johnson & Johnson MedTech launches ultrasound catheter for imaging in cardiac ablation procedures
  • Onward reports more successful BCI implants

Primary Sidebar

“md
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest med device regulatory, business and technology news.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MEDTECH 100 Stock 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.
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
Medical Design Sourcing

DeviceTalks Webinars, Podcasts, & Discussions

Attend our Monthly Webinars
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

MASSDEVICE

Subscribe to MassDevice E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Contact us

Copyright © 2025 · 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.

Privacy Policy