Old Rocks
Diamond Member
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Why are all healthcare expenditures rising? Because new innovations cost more.
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And once we get universal healthcare, the innovations will slow considerably because the profit motive will be gone. We'll enter a 'dark ages' period of medical science.
I see. Like Japan and Europe?
MRI prices fall sharply in markets outside U.S.
MRI prices fall sharply in markets outside U.S. - Diagnostic Imaging
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Tight reimbursement and improvements in low-field technology have combined to force down the prices of magnetic resonance imaging systems sold in Japan and Europe. Japanese MRI prices have been declining for at least two years, and this trend has spread to Europe and other international markets as well.
"Japan has the most competitive prices," said Ralph Andreas, vice president of international for Toshiba America MRI in South San Francisco. But MRI prices in general can't go much lower, he said.
The price of a popular 0.5-tesla superconductive system in Japan plummeted from 200 million yen ($1.5 million) to 100 million yen ($735,000) between 1988 and 1989. The price continued to fall in 1990 to about 70 million yen ($514,000)--about half the U.S. price, according to the Japanese newspaper Nippon Kogyo Shimbun.
MRI prices in Europe were considerably higher than in the U.S., but have dropped significantly. Prices in Japan, however, are much lower than those found in both the U.S. and Europe.
Tightly controlled reimbursement rates are forcing a major reduction in prices outside the U.S., according to Christopher J. Peabody, senior vice president of international operations at Picker. Customers in international markets are seeking magnet values at 0.5 tesla and below.
"A lot of shopping is done on the basis of lowest installed price," Peabody said.
Prices in Europe have fallen about half as far as those in Japan. Mid-field systems sold for about 13 million francs ($2.5 million) in France in 1987. Today, 0.5-tesla systems list in the 9 million franc ($1.7 million) range. List price for a popular high-field system was 16 million francs ($3.1 million) in 1987 and has dropped about 25% to 12 million francs ($2.3 million), according to Dr. Robert Lavayssi-ere, general secretary of the heavy equipment branch of the Private Practicing Radiologists' Union.
"This current (downward) price trend will force some of the smaller competitors out, and in the long run prices will flatten out," Andreas said. "There also has to be more consistency in pricing between the various geographical markets."
For the time being, however, reimbursement will probably continue to decline and the price of MR systems will have to follow, he said.
"It is like a mini price war and it's unfortunate, because you have to put more R&D into MRI than into any other imaging modality," Andreas said.