Comparison of Reimbursement Pricing Systems for Medical Devices in Japan and Other Countries

In this article, we discuss the current status of the reimbursement price system for medical devices in Germany, France, the UK, the US, and Australia, which are the reference countries for the “foreign price adjustment system” in determining insurance reimbursement prices, and also provide implications for Japan. While Germany, the UK, and the US generally have reimbursement systems where medical devices are reimbursed as part of lumpsum payment, in other countries, as with Japan’s specified insurance medical devices, individual reimbursement prices are set. In countries that primarily implement lumpsum payments, there is a system of adding a certain period of reimbursement price increase to compensate for the decrease in medical institutions’ revenue resulting from the price increase of improved products. In addition, there are other support systems for collecting clinical evidence, which serve as examples for future discussions in Japan to promote the appropriate introduction of new medical devices.