« Ind. Law - "Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi ordered lenient deal for business partner's client" | Main | Ind. Law - AG Zoeller challenging the new health care law »
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Law - Is there a warranty on that new hip or new knee implant?
Barry Meier reported Saturday in the NY Times in a lengthy story that begins:
When a car breaks, a computer fails or a toaster flames out, the manufacturer is often liable under the product warranty. But that is not how the multibillion-dollar orthopedics industry tends to work, according to doctors, industry experts and three of the biggest device makers.The million or so artificial hips and knees implanted each year in the United States, they say, are normally not guaranteed. Instead, the costs of replacing implants that fail early because of design or mechanical problems — devices that sell for as much as $15,000 each — are largely paid by Medicare, insurance companies and patients.
Implants can fail for many reasons, but if only a small percentage of them fail prematurely because they are substandard, the costs to taxpayers, policyholders and patients can run into the tens of millions of dollars each year, health care experts estimate.
Orthopedic producers may sometimes even profit from the failures because they sell the replacements at full price.
“Companies have dumped these costs into the health care system,” said Dr. Lawrence D. Dorr, an orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles who two years ago took the unusual step of drawing attention to one problematic hip device. “They don’t have any skin in the game.”
The costs imposed by poorly performing medical devices were not dealt with in the landmark health care legislation that Congress passed last month. To pay for part of the overhaul, lawmakers mandated an excise tax on implant sales that is intended to bring in $20 billion over the next decade.
Patient advocates say an important opportunity was lost. Arthur Levin, the executive director of the Center for Medical Consumers, an advocacy group in New York, said it was appalling that the manufacturers did not provide warranties, given how critical such implants are for patients. By contrast, makers of another widely used and costly category of implants, heart devices like defibrillators, have issued warranties for more than 30 years and have provided free or discounted replacements when devices fail prematurely.
“Either they do not have faith in their products, or they are just saying tough luck to patients,” Mr. Levin said, referring to the makers of orthopedic implants. “It borders on unethical business behavior.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 4, 2010 01:43 PM
Posted to General Law Related