April 17, 2025
Life Science Tools: NIH Headwinds & Congressional Guardrails
With press reports indicating that the White House will seek NIH funding cuts of more than 40% in its upcoming FY26 budget release, the overhang on life science tools (LST) names [BRKR, ILMN, AVTR, A,…
April 14, 2025
Medtech & Medicare Inpatient Implications
Friday’s draft FY26 rate rule for Medicare inpatient hospital services brings incremental benefits for the likes of BSX, DXCM, ABT, and MMSI through proposed endorsement of new technology add-on payments (NTAP) that we expect to…
March 31, 2025
Procept Biorobotics: Expecting ~20% Medicare Rate Cut
With CMS likely to propose a new Medicare physician payment rate for PRCT’s Aquablation in early July – with a final policy in early Nov. and rates effective Jan. 1, 2026 – we expect to…
March 28, 2025
INSP, NYXH, LIVN: Sleep Apnea Coverage Timeline
We view the delayed approval of Nyxoah’s (NYXH) Genio announced this week as positive for Inspire Medical (INSP) insofar as it not only pushes out competition – albeit to an uncertain extent – but may…
March 21, 2025
EXAS, GH: Colorectal Cancer Coverage in Hand, Edits to Come?
An update to CMS’s colorectal cancer (CRC) screening National Coverage Determination (NCD) formally establishes coverage for EXAS’ Cologuard Plus ($592) and GH’s Shield ($1,495), with claims processing likely available within 30 days. While we have…
March 20, 2025
EW, ABT: Tricuspid Replacement Coverage Benign
We view CMS’s final coverage decision on transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) as an incremental positive for Edwards Lifesciences’ (EW) Evoque, in that it eliminates proposed limitations to only those with severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR)…
March 12, 2025
Guardant Health (GH): Next Steps on Shield
With the Medicare rate for GH’s Shield colorectal cancer (CRC) screening test set to increase 62% on April 1 ($920 to $1,495) following designation yesterday as an Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Test (ADLT) – in line…
March 5, 2025
Life Science Tools: Court Intervention & NIH’s New Management
Events today support our view that NIH grant funding benefitting life science tools (LST) manufacturers will likely stabilize, and that the Trump administration’s Feb. 7 announcement of a 15% cap on indirect costs for all…
March 3, 2025
[DXCM, OMI, AHCO] Glucose Monitors in the Crosshairs?
We anticipate risks for manufacturers [DXCM, ABT] and suppliers [OMI, AHCO] of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) beginning this spring / summer, given that: The HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) will likely publish the results…
February 19, 2025
Renal Denervation: Medicare Coverage at 10%-20% of TAM?
We suspect CMS’s draft National Coverage Determination (NCD) for renal denervation (RDN) [Medtronic, Otsuka] – scheduled for release July 13 – will limit eligibility to 10-20% (~3.1M-7.5M) of the estimated ~32M Medicare beneficiaries with hypertension…