Device Tax Repealed

After a decade of controversy and infrequent collection, the 2.3% tax on medical devices has been repealed as part of a series of spending bills for fiscal 2020. The bipartisan opposition to the tax made its demise seem inevitable, but the tax did not go down without a fight.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed two spending bills early in the week of Dec. 17, which in addition to the repeal of the device tax called for repeal of the Cadillac tax on premium health plans. Another tax that fell to the spending package was the health insurance tax, and the loss of all three represents a significant blow to the funding mechanisms for the Affordable Care Act. However, a number of other provisions of the ACA have fallen prey to the congressional axe, including the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which was removed by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.

While the device tax was part of the statute for a decade, it has been infrequently levied on device makers thanks to routine congressional intervention. The latest two-year suspension, the second consecutive 24-month reprieve, was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, and industry and a number of medical societies and others had pleaded with Congress to do away with the tax.

In a Sept. 24, 2019, letter to leaders in the House and Senate, these stakeholders argued that the tax was not only bad for the U.S. economy, it also flew against the recent emphasis on advancing the state of medical science. While the authors do not directly cite the 21st Century Cures Act as a source of tension with the tax, they nonetheless argued that the imposition of the tax from 2013 to 2015 forced the abandonment of numerous R&D projects. Consequently, they said, “patients were denied new treatments.”

The Senate signed off on the spending package Dec. 19 and President Trump finally inked the White House’s approval late in the evening Dec. 20, shortly before funds for government operations were to expire. Scott Whitaker, president/CEO of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, advised Trump in an Oct. 17, 2019, letter that another suspension of the tax would merely renew the uncertainty surrounding the tax. Whitaker said another two-year suspension would force device makers to “plan and act as if the tax will ultimately be imposed on them.”

Some Sources of Uncertainty Remain

The demise of the tax comes shortly after the Senate affirmed Stephen Hahn as the new commissioner of the FDA. Hahn was confirmed in a Dec. 12 vote that affirmed the Trump administration’s nominee with a 72-18 majority, bringing to a close another source of uncertainty for device makers. Hahn’s background is in oncology, a sharp departure from the policy-driven expertise of his predecessor, Scott Gottlieb.

Despite these larger developments, device makers are facing a number of questions as the new year comes into view. The FDA software precertification pilot program is still apparently underway despite the agency’s vow to wrap up the pilot by the end of 2019, and the discussion draft regarding artificial intelligence has not yet advanced past the stage of an FDA talking point.

Another major sticking point for device makers is the matter of patent subject matter eligibility, which is the subject of a petition for cert to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the impact of recent Supreme Court case law has affected software in addition to in vitro diagnostics, the Patent and Trademark Office has developed examiner guidelines that have eased the pressure on software patents. Nonetheless, IVD developers and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit are unmollified over what they see as a jurisprudential animus against diagnostic and other life science patents. Whether the Supreme Court will revisit the matter is unclear, but the case in question will be distributed for conference as of Jan. 10, 2020.