Integrating Reimbursement into Medical Device Design

Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry (MDDI)  recently included an article, Tips for Designing with Reimbursement in Mind, summarizing a presentation by Mark Domyahn, of St. Jude Medical, covering tips related to reimbursement.

Some key points from the article are as follows:

• Reimbursement is separate from regulatory approvals
• Understand the requirements for approvals and reimbursement early in product development
• Perform coding assessments early
• Understand whether the product will fall within a covered benefit
• All functions involved in the new product development project need to have a common view of the goals

The article also contains a list of important questions for key healthcare economics and reimbursement considerations.

Overall, reimbursement must be considered early in the project. We normally integrate reimbursement requirements into design inputs to ensure key items are included in the final product design and to drive common understanding across the project team.