MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Wall Street analyst and Motley Fool writer Sean Williams sees an Obamacare upside for the medical device industry, despite the doom and gloom forecast usually spurred by talk of the medical device tax.
Williams ceded that his opinion is "pure conjecture," but he speculated that the late surge in Obamacare enrollment may suggest a financial benefit to healthcare systems and thus an indirect boon to medical device companies as hospitals write off fewer bills as "noncollectable" and spend more on new technologies.
"Given the uncertainty surrounding the implementation of Obamacare most hospitals have held back on making large equipment purchases," Williams wrote. "This extra cash flow generated by a lower rate of uninsured patients could be the perfect impetus for hospital operators to differentiate themselves from competitors with state-of-the-art equipment."
The biggest beneficiaries may be companies with high-priced, specialized equipment, such as Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) with its da Vinci robot-assisted surgical systems and Accuray (NSDQ:ARAY), with it robot-assisted radiation therapy technology.
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