Health Industry Today articles from November 1993

Health Industry Today archives from November 1993

IOL companies feel left in the dark with Medicare reimbursement cut. (intraocular lenses) (Market Memo)
November 1, 1993... Sales of intraocular lenses (IOLs) are expected to increase by about 5% a year through 1995, but overall revenues will plummet as Medicare reimbursement for IOLs will be cut next year and possibly by more in 1995. The Health Care Finance...

C.R. Bard pleads guilty, faces $61 million product settlement. (C.R. Bard Inc.)
November 1, 1993... The new marketing strategy of C.R. Bard Inc., Murray Hill, N.J., is to distance the company from the turmoil caused by pleading guilty to a 391-count Justice Dept. indictment concerning the company's illegal handling of heart-surgery instruments,...

Stuart acquiring, gains accounts. (Stuart Medical Inc.)
November 1, 1993... Stuart Medical, Inc., Greensburg, Pa., is rapidly gaining new accounts and expanding through acquisition, continuing the industry's consolidation trend. In October, Stuart Medical signed a letter of intent to acquire Indianapolis-based Midwest...

Puritan-Bennett reassuring customers after fire. (Puritan-Bennett Corp.)
November 1, 1993... Puritan-Bennett Corp., Overland Park, Kan., continues to reassure customers that the company, in conjunction with the Food & Drug Admin., is investigating the safety of its respirators and humidifiers following three deaths from a Sept. 1 fire...

USSC builds steam in face of cost cuts elsewhere. (U.S. Surgical Corp.) (USSC Update)
November 1, 1993... U.S. Surgical Corp. (USSC), Norwalk, Conn., is using new weapons in its marketing arsenal to remain the market leader in less-invasive surgical (LIS) instruments, and to boost wound closure product sales in an effort to compensate for the...

Smaller and mid-sized vendors offer benefits that larger companies cannot or will not provide. (purchasing groups) (Industry News)
November 1, 1993... While some national purchasing groups and market-leading manufacturers look to sign agreements for total product lines, small and mid-sized manufacturers are finding that regional purchasing groups and regional affiliates of national purchasing...

Transvenous leads electrify defibrillator market. (medical equipment and supplies industry)
November 1, 1993... The battle to market new technology continues to escalate among Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis; Ventritex, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.; and Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. (CPI), St. Paul, Minn., which is a division of Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis. CPI...

Why sledgehammers don't cut it in medical device advertising. (advertising for less invasive surgery apparatus) (Advertising Strategies)
November 1, 1993... For a year, now, we've been talking about what makes advertising good. We've talked about the differences between the feature set and the benefit set, and noted that features are only valuable if they deliver a benefit to the customer. We've...

Claflin shares risk with hospital customers under new capitated service agreement. (Claflin Company Inc.) (Distributor News)
November 1, 1993... Claflin Co., Inc., East Providence, R.I., is proposing a new type of distribution agreement to two stockless hospitals, in which the hospitals pay a fixed monthly fee to have Claflin supply a predetermined number of line items to the hospitals....

Stryker challenges Hill-Rom with new line of med-surg beds. (Stryker Corp. Medical division; modular patient system bed lines) (Product Strategies)
November 1, 1993... Stryker Medical Division, Kalamazoo, Mich., believes the company's lower-priced Modular Patient System (MPS) bed line will take a slice of the medical-surgical bed market away from market dominator Hill-Rom, Batesville, Ind. Stryker began...

Cook marketing new stent for failed angioplasty procedures. (Cook Inc.; coronary devices) (Product Strategies)
November 1, 1993... Cook Inc., Bloomington, Ind., introduced a coronary device in July designed to reduce the occurrence of vessel closure that can occur after balloon angioplasty procedures. Company officials are marketing the Gianturco-Roubin Flex Stent as the...

Supra Medical looking for companies to invest in new Oxychamber. (Supra Medical Corp.; disposable oxychamber)
November 1, 1993... Supra Medical Corp., Chadds Ford, Pa., is looking for a company with strong marketing ability in the area of wound and skin treatments to help sell Supra's Disposable Oxychamber, a disposable plastic hyperbaric oxygen treatment system. Supra...

HIDA aids vendors with employment searches. (Health Industry Distributors Association)
November 1, 1993... The Dept. of Defense (DOD) has enlisted the Health Industry Distributors Assn. (HIDA) to help the military place medical supply and logistics personnel in private medical companies. The Defense Outplacement Referral System is a resume registry...