Hospitals not passing drop in stent prices to patients: IMS

Heart patients needing angioplasty in India have not been benefited from a dip of up to 50 per cent in stent prices as hospitals have not yet passed on the advantage to them, according to a study by IMS Health.
In a study entitled Medical devices in India - Accessibility, Quality and Pricing, Analysis on Cardiac Stents, IMS Health said, "there is a change in stent price of 30-50 per cent across the value chain".
"Looking at price reductions across levels, it seems like the benefits of decreased price are getting passed from manufacturers to distributors and from distributors to hospitals, but the benefits are not entirely getting passed from hospitals to patients," the study commissioned by Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) said.

The study said: "Analysis suggests that in (around) 70 per cent of the cases, stent cost is less than 50 per cent of the overall angioplasty procedure cost... The remaining cost in angioplasty procedure comes from doctor fees, drugs, room rent, diagnostics and other incidentals."
It further said for the period 2011-2014, stent prices for coronary angioplasty procedures have decreased while other healthcare services such as drug cost, procedure cost, other costs have either increased or remained the same.
For CGHS cases, the reimbursement limits for coronary drug eluting stents (DES) have declined by more than 60% but the procedure cost have remained stable, it added.

The study also found "the real barrier to access is not the cost of medical devices but infrastructure and manpower constraints."

It concluded that the increase in other components of procedure costs seem to be driving the overall procedure cost.
IMS Health is a global information and technology services company providing clients in the healthcare industry with end-to-end solutions.
AdvaMed represents companies producing medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems.