Seeking, the article is a little more positive than you have interpreted it to be.
Firstly, the medicare decision will be based on medical necessity and effectiveness and if something is going to be a huge drain on the medicare trust fund they are likely to look a little more closely.
LVAD's are a medical necessity and to date their effectiveness has been proved so this leaves medicare with one question to answer and that is, will reimbursement be a huge drain on the medicare trust fund? The answer is NO. LVAD's become cost effective 45-50 days (1.5 months) following implant. This has been quoted at CHFPATIENTS.COM. Why do private health insurers cover LVAD's? Because they are cost effective.
You have said Ventrassist is not likel to be approved for sale in the US for atleast 5-8 years in its current format. Your earlier posts stated 8 years so you have become a little more positive of late.
What do you mean by "current format"?
We will know medicares decision soon.
Cheers.
VCR
ventracor limited
waiting for a possible medicare decision, page-5
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