The former chief executive of hospital group Healthscope has backed insurers' claims they are being gouged by medical device manufacturers, saying the country is referred to as a 'treasure island' for the industry
federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to overhaul the government's "prostheses list", which mandates how much they pay for more than 10,000 prosthetic and implanted medical devices.
“They were more interested in how could Australia pay so much and the margins be so much and whether, as an investor, that would continue," Mr Cooke said. “I don’t see prostheses as any different to any other part of the system – we’re not arguing that staff costs, which are 60 to 65 per cent of the system, should be reduced," Mr McNally said. "So, I’m not sure why prostheses gets identified differently."
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