User fee pilot strategy?
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Incremental adoption of device user fees would be preferable if the proposal is to be implemented at all, Council of Economic Advisors' Mark McClellan asserts at April 30 Capitol Hill cardiovascular disease event. "I think the Administration would like to see an effective mechanism put in place to help make sure that good devices get to the market as quickly as possible," he said. However, "if we're going to go down that road, it's best to start small and kind of gradually increase [the number of devices] if effective ways to do device user fees can be implemented." McClellan indicated that White House-level discussions about user fees have already taken place. Also at the April 30 event, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) told attendees, "I am strongly committed to...[working] with you to try and make sure...that the government is not going to [hinder your] extraordinary work"...