New Reports Explain European Medical Device Reimbursement

To support medical device manufacturers and others interested in European reimbursement policies, a unique series of reports has recently been released by Belgium-based consulting company Jacoti bvba. The new reports cover third party payers' policies, the interaction between decision-makers, and pricing policies in Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Belgium. Reports on other European countries are currently under production.

Except for the United States, the European medical device market, which is valued at around US $ 37 billion, is the largest in the world. Although healthcare is, for the most part, a public matter in all European countries, the management and funding of healthcare is not harmonized on the European level. An understanding of how the various European reimbursement systems function gives medical device companies planning to enter the European market a clear competitive advantage.

The degree of complexity and length of the national reimbursement decision-making process are factors that must be taken into consideration for an optimized market introduction. So is the impact of the health service culture in a particular country, which is defined as the public's expectations and the willingness and ability of third party payers to live up to those expectations. It is therefore crucial to define the various decision-making components in a country to estimate chances, risks and the time it may take until a new device is covered by the national reimbursement scheme. This is especially true since all European countries are currently under increasing pressure to restrain healthcare spending.

The Jacoti Insight reports are written by a highly qualified international team (French, German, Scandinavian, Belgian and Dutch) with the additional support from contact networks established in most of the European countries. The reports highlight the functioning of the reimbursement process and describe third party payer policy and common factors relevant in the decision making process.

Those interested in obtaining a copy of the Jacoti Insight reports may obtain additional information by contacting Jacoti at Tel: (011) 32 3 458 1547, Fax: (011) 32 3 458 15 21, or e-mail: Info@jacoti.com.