Part II: Medicare Implant Pricing & the $25 Billion Blind Spot: Why Devices Escaped IRA-Style Negotiation, What Australia & Japan Already Publish, & What a US Device Price Rule Would Actually Require

Medicare pays for ~1 million implant procedures a year and does not know, at the product level, what it bought. No brand. No model. No manufacturer. The claim has no field for it.

The $25B number floating around is in the right range. Joints: $4-5B. Spine hardware: $2-3B. Cardiac rhythm: ~$3B. Transcatheter heart valves alone: ~$3B. All outside any negot…