MIAMI—Total hospitalization costs with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) amount to approximately €40,000 ($51,713), mainly driven by length of stay and valve costs, according to a German scientific poster presented Oct. 23 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.

MIAMI—An analysis of procedure volumes with aortic valve replacement (AVR) for various regions revealed that Medicare policies dictating volume requirements may lead to variability in care and costs. The study, which found tremendous variability in costs and net margins across five U.S. medical centers, was presented as a scientific poster Oct. 23 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.

MIAMI—While lead investigator William Fearon, MD, touted fractional flow reserve (FFR) as “economically attractive in this cost-effectiveness analysis,” a physician panel during the Oct. 24 presentation of FAME 2 Cost-Effectiveness questioned whether that can be determined since the trial was stopped early, and longer-term data are lacking. This trial was presented as a late-breaking clinical trial at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.

MIAMI—When tasked with predicting the cardiovascular healthcare landscape in 2022, David R. Holmes, MD, of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., reminded an audience at the 2012 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference on Oct. 23 that the specific goals set by healthcare leaders in 1927 mimic today’s agenda items, in spite of a different payment structure and more technological advances.

MIAMI—“We all recognize that innovation has an instrumental role in medical progress, and we [at the FDA] acknowledge that there are real problems with the landscape of medical device innovation in the U.S., the biggest of which is outsourcing,” said Andrew Farb, MD, senior reviewer at the Office of Device Evaluation at the FDA's Division of Cardiovascular Devices. But, he also added that “I’m from the government, and we’re here to help.”

Healthcare plans that encourage the use of generic drugs by lowering or eliminating copayments may save Medicare billions of dollars, according to a study published in the October issue of Health Affairs. Researchers estimated that every 10 percent increase in the use of a generic statin would save Medicare approximately $1 billion annually.

Reducing copayments for cardiovascular medications among low-risk patients appeared to be cost neutral, according to a study published online Oct. 3 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Still, the policy change trimmed out-of-pocket expenditures and resource use.

Is public reporting all that it is cracked up to be? Or does it sometimes lead to a distorted view of the facts?