The role of medical technology in health care costs has long been a source of debate. It has been widely asserted that healthcare technology can be cost increasing, due to price and volume effects, both for medical technologies themselves and related services. Other findings have suggested that benefits from spending on medical technologies can far exceed their costs, particularly when longer-term benefits are measured in terms of productivity and reduced disability. Yet, surprisingly, very little analysis has been conducted on the direct costs to the health system of medical devices themselves.
This study was engaged to: (1) develop estimates of medical device spending in the United States that are compatible and consistent with estimates of National Health Expenditures (NHE) developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); (2) compare our estimates of medical device expenditures to NHE estimates published by CMS; and (3) develop estimates of price changes for medical devices for comparison to standard indexes.
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