Medical Devices Overview

New medical devices offer substantial improvements in the quality of life and reduction in risk of mortality for patients with cardiac, orthopedic, and other serious conditions, but also are responsible for part of the rapid escalation in health care costs. These medical devices, and the specialty procedures and service lines that depend on them, offer a major opportunity for improvements in value to the extent hospitals, physicians, and health insurance plans embrace efficient technology adoption and purchasing. Improvements in quality and efficiency can be advanced by:

1.  Better data and benchmark standards on use and price, both locally and across
     the state;

2.  Improved hospital purchasing strategies, which in turn require physician cooperation
     and the diffusion of best practices among hospitals; and

3.  New payment methods that align physician and hospital incentives by "bundling"
     together the payments for the physician, the hospital, and the medical technologies
     across an episode of care.