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?

Medicare patients admitted to the hospital with acute MI are less likely to receive PCI in states that require public reporting of PCI outcomes, according to a study published Oct. 10 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The data raised red flags about possible underuse, the lead author told Cardiovascular Business in an interview.

Hospital readmission rates may provide a yard stick for measuring quality of care, but small permutations in the methods used to calculate those rates can make a big difference in rankings, according to an analysis published Oct. 9 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

States that terminated Certificate of Need regulations for cardiac care experienced lower costs per CABG patient after the regulations were dropped and no changes in cost per PCI patient, according to a study published online Oct. 2 in Medical Care Research and Review.

In the future, successful doctors, hospitals and health systems will shift their activities from delivering health services within their walls toward a broader range of approaches that deliver health, which will require providers to become less product-oriented and more customer-oriented.