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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS; Baltimore) announcement last month that it plans to create the Council on Technology and Innovation (CTI), replacing its Medicare Technology Council (MTC), is an attempt to move new technologies through the coverage process, if not more quickly, at least more openly.
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The UK Department of Health late last month named Cardiac Science (Irvine, California) as its sole provider of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). It plans to purchase about $3 million AEDs in a contract the company said represents the largest government purchase of such devices in history.
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Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia), the provider of drug coatings for stents and other medical devices, closed its acquisition of NeuColl (Los Gatos, California) in an all-cash transaction of nearly $13 million. Previously, Angiotech had obtained an equity interest in NeuColl through the acquisition of Cohesion Technologies in January 2003.
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Alere Medical (Reno, Nevada) said it would provide its comprehensive heart failure management program to Humanas (Louisville, Kentucky) Medicare Advantage members who suffer from advanced congestive heart failure.
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Douglas Smith, PhD, has been promoted from director of engineering to vice president of engineering for CardiacAssist (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). Max Klix-Saravia, formerly controller of the company, was promoted to vice president of finance. The former CFO position was vacated by F. Thomas Casey, who retired.
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Privately held Concentric Medical (Mountain View, California) received clearance from the FDA in mid-August to market the Merci Retriever, the first medical device cleared by that agency to remove blood clots from the brain in patients experiencing an ischemic stroke.
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Merging the case management department with the quality department is the best thing weve ever done, says Sharon Simmons, CRNP, MSN, CNOR, director of clinical excellence for St. Vincents Hospital in Birmingham, AL. Combining the departments has resulted in a tremendous improvement in quality of care as well as improved outcomes, she adds.
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Fewer than one-quarter of rehab hospitals responding to a recent survey believe they will be able to comply with the 75% rehab rule during the three-year transition period; more than 40% will be turning patients away; and 14% said they expect to have to close their units or hospitals completely.
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Hospitals and health care workers have gone to great effort to understand the patient privacy rules, but more needs to be done to educate the public, according to some health care providers.
