Friday Q&A: Stanford Biodesign’s Makower on expediting Medicare coverage for breakthrough devices

MedTech Dive May 26, 2023
Susan Kelly

The director and co-founder of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign has been urging CMS to get patients access to breakthrough devices.

It takes more than five years for breakthrough medical technologies to gain even partial Medicare coverage after approval from the Food and Drug Administration, research from the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign at Stanford University has found. That’s keeping a whole segment of the U.S. population from benefiting, according to Dr. Josh Makower, director and co-founder of the Byers Center for Biodesign and a professor of medicine and bioengineering at Stanford.

Makower has been one of the leading voices urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to find a way to get patients access to breakthrough devices.

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