Fake medical technology used in hospitals: The same pacemaker costs 2,200 or 12,900 francs

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High health insurance premiums are becoming a financial problem for more and more Swiss people. The increases are generally due to patients demanding more and more services.

But there are other cost drivers as well. For example, extremely expensive medical devices. We often talk about drugs, but the same goes for devices and materials in the medical technology sector. Research by Tamedia shows that some companies can charge exorbitant prices for their products due to a lack of transparency.

The example given is the Edora 8 DR-T pacemaker manufactured by the German company Biotronik. Over the past five years, this product was sold once for 2,200 francs in the canton of Solothurn, once for 12,900 francs in the canton of Ticino, and at various price levels in the meantime. Arbitrary pricing? The manufacturer did not respond to questions regarding the reasons for the high price differences for the same product.

High revenue, little transparency

According to the Swiss Medtech association, the medical technology industry in Switzerland generates sales of 9 billion francs every year. This amounts to approximately 10 percent of the total cost of the Swiss healthcare system. Medicines account for around 11 percent.

Problem: Prices of medical devices are subject to the highest level of confidentiality. As a result, clinics do not know how much others are paying for the same product. For the aforementioned Biotronic pacemaker, experts suspect that production costs are less than 500 francs per device. How much hospitals and health insurance companies will pay cannot be determined “due to confidentiality”. Tamedia received insider pricing information only.

Conclusion: Sometimes large price differences cannot be explained by volume discounts or bargaining skills alone. The lack of price transparency allows manufacturers to make huge profits. On the other hand, premium payers’ bills are expensive and healthcare costs increase in the long run.

A buyer at Winterthur Cantonal Hospital says: “The market has not behaved like other sectors for a long time. “We will pay the price for the damage together.”

Source :Blick