HealthLeaders Media reports that while the “shift to a value-based healthcare system is showing positive results . . . . the low hanging fruit has already been grabbed.”  It suggests that “insurers and other healthcare entities will have to get creative and find more complex ways to draw value from the system.”
Medical device reprocessors respectfully beg to differ.  The commercial medical device reprocessing industry has a billion dollars of savings, or what we think is low hanging fruit, for the US healthcare system and doctors and hospitals can keep using the same devices, the same brands and get the same results!  Hospitals manage millions if not billions of dollars of medical device assets and sadly, perhaps a billion or dollars of so-called single-use devices are thrown away even though commercial reprocessors have obtained FDA clearance to reprocess these products.  The Association of Medical Device Reprocessors is the global trade association consisting of members of the commercial single-use device reprocessing and remanufacturing industry. We literally extend the life span of medical devices, allowing hospitals to achieve the triple aim of increasing quality, reducing costs and improving patient care.
Providers and healthcare facilities must commit to properly collecting devices for reprocessing, to using reprocessed products first and to treating their medical device assets with care.  Further, and perhaps most importantly, to realize the full value of their medical devices, hospitals must resist the overwhelming influence of medical device manufacturers and their sales reps who continually push for hospitals to buy more and more brand new devices.  The reprocessing solution allows hospitals to maximize the value of the devices they already have! Some analysts estimate that the commercial reprocessing business could do two billion dollars of business by 2023 – with average reprocessing savings amounting to about half the cost of buying a new devices, that’s a BILLION dollars in more resources that could remain with America’s hospitals.
Maybe in the larger scheme of U.S. healthcare spending, a billion dollars doesn’t sound like much, but AMDR thinks that by promoting a healthier, more transparent way at looking at medical device purchasing, hospitals and healthcare providers can better control device utilization and optimize the value of their existing medical technology.  Let the change begin with us! The medical device reprocessing industry is aligned with hospitals and stands ready to help increase quality, reduce costs and improve patient care. And in addition to reducing device acquisition costs by a billion dollars, reprocessors are helping US hospitals reduce waste, lower waste reduction costs and provide economic competition that lowers the price of NEW devices.  If your hospital or healthcare institution wants to reprocess or reprocess more, please see our member companies.  For healthcare policy decision-makers, contact me.  Let’s discuss how we can make reprocessing part of the solution.