MassDevice.com was a little schizophrenic in reporting the effects of the medical device tax, as outlined in a striking new Advamed report. According to their first post (2/12) the Device Tax’s impact was “milder than expected”…but their later post (2/18) states that 33,000 jobs have been lost in the industry already. So, what gives?
Well, it turns out that 53% of senior-level respondents had predicted “somewhat negative” or “very negative” effects when, after the fact, 45% actually experienced these negative effects. I guess that’s somewhat milder, but not by much.
At first blush, you might be tempted to say “this is an industry-sponsored report and exaggerated” but the scope of the survey suggests otherwise – responses came from 38 companies, accounting for 40% of domestic medical device revenue…45% had revenue below $100 million, the rest were above.
Other notable negative consequences reported by AdvaMed include:
- 30.6% said they had reduced R&D
- 10% said they were relocating manufacturing overseas
- 58% were considering layoffs if tax is not repealed
- 50% were considering reducing R&D if tax is not repealed
Not a pretty picture.
