Medical Device Makers Want Stimulus Provision Out

Medical device makers are pushing to have a provision removed from Barack Obama’s stimulus bill that would use $1.1 billion to compare medical treatments.

Administration officials and top congressional Democrats say the idea will help government programs such as Medicare, direct their dollars to treatments that are worth the money, but device manufacturers warn the government could rule out useful and necessary treatments because of cost.

The House version sent rumbles through the drug and medical device industries. In a staff report, the House said treatments found to be less effective and in some cases more expensive “will no longer be prescribed.” A Senate version backed by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) doesn’t mention cost as a subject to be studied.

The final language is likely to be hammered out later this week in a House-Senate conference committee. The $1.1 billion in research funding would be doled out to the National Institutes of Health and other government bodies.