Healthcare IT Update

Medical device tax could pose big costs for consumers.

Now that the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) includes approximately$20 billion for healthcare IT, the administration is starting to throw a lot of money around. Just where is that $20 billion coming from?

Some industry folks think it could come in the form of a new tax on medical devices. In a recent post on the Health Data Management Blog, Editor-in-Chief Greg Gillespie spotlights this new tax – a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices set to go into effect in 2013. He says this figure hasn’t received much exposure in the media because it doesn’t sound like much – unless you’re in the medical devices market. The tax could generate almost $2 billion every year, says Gillespie.

Medical device manufacturers will try to find ways to pass the costs on to the consumers,…