On the roster of the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees in 2019 are members working toward both support of the Affordable Care Act and repeal of the device tax that helps fund it. Some on the committees, including all of the Democrats, back efforts to strengthen ACA in 2019, while many Democrats declined to repeal the device tax in a key 2018 vote. But 19 members of the panels voted to accomplish both goals.

The medtech industry should expect legislation to gain attention in the US Senate in the coming months to lower health-care costs and promote transparency to allow cost-conscious patients to shop for the most effective and lowest-priced surgical and advanced imaging procedures, as well as bills to repeal the device tax, key Senate health players say.

Clinical labs are troubled by the idea of granting US FDA vast discretion to determine if laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) are analytically and clinically valid, a key feature of the draft US VALID Act, while in vitro diagnostic kit manufacturers want some clarifications and more flexibility written into the proposal for diagnostic regulatory reforms.