The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
Rep. Eric Cantor
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) may have 228 co-sponsors for his bill to repeal the medical device tax, but he’s still missing some key members of the congressional caucus formed to support the medical device industry.
About 25 of the 66 members of the Medical Technology Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives have yet to sign on as co-sponsors on Paulsen’s H.R. 436: Protect Medical Innovations Act.
Both houses of Congress put their stamp of approval on the pay roll tax cut bill today, including in it a measure that protects physicians’ Medicare reimbursement rates from the impending 27.4% cut set to take effect March 1.
The bill passed quickly through the House with a 293 to 132 majority, and won in the Senate less than an hour later on a 60-36 vote.
Congressional negotiators reached a tentative deal that would preserve Medicare funding for physicians as part of a larger deal surrounding payroll tax cut extensions.
The deal, brokered almost entirely by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), makes up for the missing dollars by taking big chunks out of budgets allocated by health care laws to prevention, public health and hospital aid funding.
Democrats in the U.S. House, concerned about a pair of high-profile medical devices, want the Energy & Commerce Committee to open a probe into gastric band and vaginal mesh products.
The Dems are waging a partisan battle with the Republicans in control of the committee over the user fees the device industry pays to have the FDA review its products. The fees are set by the Medical Device User Fee & Modernization Act, which is set to be re-authorized this year – provided that the industry and the agencyu can come to an agreement.
Medical device industry lobbyists ramped up their spending during the 3rd quarter, dropping nearly $32 million on Washington in the 3 months ended Sept. 30.
The reports mark a continued incline for the industry’s spending on Capitol Hill, which hit nearly $28 million last quarter and $20 million in Q1.
The American Medical Assn. led the charge in Q3, doling out more than $7 million, up from last quarter’s $4.3 million.
An amendment that would have pushed back the start date on a proposed medical device industry tax didn’t make it into the healthcare reform bill the U.S. Senate is debating and expected to pass on Christmas Eve.
Last week, senators from medical device-rich states
proposed significant changes to the medical device tax. Their amendment would have pushed the start date for the tax back to 2013 instead of 2010, accelerated the payments to take place over seven years instead of 10 and excluded companies with less than $100 million in sales.
But the measure was not adopted by the Senate bill now being debated, although the start date on the tax was pushed back to 2011.
Two senators from states with hefty medical device clusters sponsored an amendment to healthcare reform legislation that would exempt companies with less than $100 million in annual sales from a proposed medical device tax, delaying its implementation until 2013.
The amendment is being sponsored by Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), along with Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D.-Minn.), Al Franken (D.-Minn.), Herb Kohl (D.-Wis.), Debbie Stabenow (D.-Mich.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
