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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02) along with Representatives Devin Nunes (CA-22), Anna Eshoo (CA-18), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), and 58 colleagues sent a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to express their disappointment with CMS’s decision to repeal the Medicare Coverage for Innovative Technology (MCIT) rule and to encourage CMS moving forward to keep vital components of the MCIT rule to achieve the bipartisan goal of providing Medicare beneficiaries access to innovative medical devices.

The MCIT rule would have given seniors and people with disabilities quicker access to innovative and life-saving medical devices by streamlining the Medicare coverage pathway for breakthrough products.

“We write to express our disappointment in your decision to repeal the Medicare Coverage for Innovative Technology (MCIT) rule which would have provided access to innovative and life-saving medical devices for Medicare beneficiaries. Going forward, we urge you to expeditiously propose policies in its place to achieve the bipartisan goals of the MCIT rule by providing our nation’s seniors and people with disabilities access to breakthrough devices and encouraging future life-saving medical innovation,” the members wrote.

“A permanent withdrawal of the MCIT rule may delay future innovative medical devices and diagnostic tools. If the rule were to be implemented, instead of spending months or years navigating the health care bureaucracy to receive coverage after FDA approval, medical innovators could prioritize their time and resources to collect data to demonstrate their product’s impact on patients and educate providers how to best serve their patients with these innovative products. The MCIT rule could further encourage early investors to step in to address our most critical health care challenges and successfully deliver life-changing treatments to patients,” the members continued in the letter.

Click HERE to read the full letter.

Click HERE for the final rule CMS released on November 12, 2021.

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