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Senate confirms new CMS leader

The U.S. Senate today confirmed President Joe Biden’s selection to lead CMS, Chiquita Brooks-Lasure, with a 55-44 vote in favor.

Brooks-Lasure will be the first Black woman to hold the position, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Twitter. She previously served in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration, during which time she helped to implement the Affordable Care Act, which she will now oversee as the Biden administration seeks to expand it.

“As we recover from the pandemic and build a stronger health care system, [CMS] needs experienced, steady leadership,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a Tweet. “Chiquita Brooks-LaSure is that leader. Her confirmation as the first Black woman to lead CMS is historic, and I look forward to swearing her in this week.”

According to a report from The Hill, GOP lawmakers had opposed Brooks-Lasure’s nomination after the…

Boston Scientific, Stryker may get extension on Medicare payments

CMS has issued a proposal for the 2022 fiscal year that would potentially help big medtech companies like Boston Scientific and Stryker.

Released yesterday, the proposal for the Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospital (LTCH) offers updated Medicare payment policies and rates for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals and for certain hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS for fiscal 2022.

CMS’ aim for the proposal is to close healthcare equity gaps and support greater access to certain diagnostics nad therapies during the ongoing public health emergency brought on by COVID-19 and beyond.

Within the proposal is a list of technologies that would receive an additional year of new technology add-on payments (NTAP), which includes devices from Boston Scientific and Stryker, among several other medtech companies.

Boston Scientific’s E…

CMS delays shift to new payment model for chronic kidney disease treatments

CMS will now wait until Jan. 1, 2022 to start its Kidney Care Choices model, meant to shift the way the U.S. treats chronic kidney disease.

The new payment model was supposed to start on Jan. 1 of this year, but health providers are still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new model could have a major effect on dialysis treatment providers including DaVita Healthcare (NYSE:DVA) and Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE:FMS; ETR:FRE). Baxter (NYSE:BAX) meanwhile announced in 2019 that it was investing in technologies to support the effort.

The new model’s roots go back to former President Donald Trump’s 2019 executive order to emphasize transplants and home hemodialysis over in-clinic treatment. End-stage renal disease is one of the few conditions in the United States where there is already a single-payer system, thanks to a law signed by President Richard Nixon in 1972.

The Kidney Care Choices (KCC) model would provide strong financial i…

CMS consolidates coverage for Intersect ENT’s corticosteroid-eluting implant

Intersect ENT (NSDQ:XENT) announced today that it received consolidated Medicare coverage for its Sinuva sinus implant.

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Intersect ENT said in a news release that CMS published an average selling price (ASP) for the Sinuva implant, providing predictability, transparency and confidence of reimbursement for providers and payers in the future.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Delivery Business News.

Ambu, Boston Sci execs see domination for single-use scopes

Hospital closures connected to COVID-19 have cut into the sales of many medical device companies, but executives at rival makers of single-use scopes say pandemic has only heightened existing concerns about contamination, exposure and cost.

In interviews in this week’s DeviceTalks Weekly Podcast, executives from Ambu A/S and Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) said improved technology make single-use scopes as effective as reusable scopes without carrying the price tag or risk of infection traditional scopes require.

Steve Block, president of Ambu US, projected that over the next decade disposable scopes will account for a majority of devices sold, saying they’ll perform better than traditional devices, cost less, and eliminate the risk of infection. “There is just no reason to use a reusable product,” he said. He said Ambu has sold single-use scopes into 96% of the Top 500 hospitals in the US performing bronchoscopies.

Block appeared on the podcast alongside…