Readout of HHS Secretary Azar’s Roundtable with Medical Device Leaders

On Thursday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar held a roundtable discussion with leaders from medical device companies and the industry group AdvaMed. The gathering was part of ongoing efforts at HHS to explore ways to break down barriers to innovation as part of the Trump Administration’s work to improve healthcare in the United States. Both President Trump and Secretary Azar are deeply committed to lowering the cost of healthcare while increasing quality and protecting incentives for innovation.

Secretary Azar mentioned that he was especially interested in hearing from the individual participants about ways to advance HHS’s priority of paying for value in healthcare, as well as ways medical technology innovation can assist in another HHS priority, combating the opioid crisis. Participants shared their experiences with securing reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid and approval from FDA, discussed proposals for reforming reimbursement within these programs, and provided feedback on the pro-innovation approaches being taken by the FDA.

Individual participants also discussed ways in which current interpretations of the Anti-Kickback Statute may be impeding value-based care models. Similar regulatory topics were raised by other individual healthcare stakeholders at a roundtable regarding impediments to coordinated care hosted by Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan on Thursday.

The medical technology meeting included representatives from Abiomed Inc., AdvaMed, Boston Scientific, CVRx, IlluminOss, STERIS, and Varian. Secretary Azar thanked the participants for their insights and emphasized HHS’s commitment to advancing value-based care and supporting scientific innovation.