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Biotech / Medical : Endosonics(eson) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jonathan romanowsky who wrote (177)	5/6/1999 5:57:00 PM
From: tuck	Respond to of 205

Jonathan, Due diligence is like that, isn't it? You end up raising more questions than you get answers for. I am having difficulty finding anything substantive that is more recent than '97. I do know that the HCFA will reimburse the IVUS procedure, but I don't know where they are on stents themselves. Hospitals may be forced to take the loss as doctors with ethics may do the procedure anyway, but I am just speculating here. I would think that the the manufacturers of stents would be lobbying hard for the HCFA to reimburse; that's another area to look at. ESON's web page is woefully out of date, too. Here are a couple more links. The recent MDI reports look good, but they're quite long and probably cost a bundle. medicaldata.com medicaldata.com This next one is, alas, also old. insidertrader.com I first came across ESON via Volpe Welty's web pages. It's now Volpe Brown Whelan, but Nalbone is apparently still the analyst. Unfortunately, his blurb on ESON is just as old as the link above and less comprehensive. I met him on a roadshow once, and he seemed to be a pretty sharp guy, for what that's worth (although the company in question, VidaMed, has been a dog). Anyway, if I looked in the mirror, I think my eyes would be described by rotating spirals. I've gotta quit for now. Cheers, Tuck

To: jonathan romanowsky who wrote (177)	5/7/1999 1:39:00 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 205

Jonathan, Eyes doing better after eight hours of being closed. I seem to have gotten one thing wrong in my previous post. "I do know that the HCFA will reimburse the IVUS procedure, but I don't know where they are on stents themselves." Well, if I'm reading the following correctly, that's not quite right. hcfa.gov "IVUS and ELCA are not stand-alone diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. They must be bundled with other procedures, and therefore ineligible for additional payment. Arguments that IVUS and ELCA represent additional work and interpretation are not valid because the main procedure, cardiac catheterization, has become less labor intensive with experience and expertise. The amount of effort involved is little more than that associated with the main procedure and they lowers the risk associated with the procedure. IVUS and ELCA are coverable procedures without additional payment allowed. Cardiac stents and the procedure to deploy them, are coverable at the discretion of the carrier. However, payment for the device would be included in the DRG rate." If I am understanding this correctly, HCFA will not disallow coverage of a cardiac catheterization procedure if stents and IVUS are used, but will not pay for additional cost of either of them, though the patient's insurance company may do so if it feels so inclined. I do not know what the DRG rate is. This is from '96, but again, I can't find anything more recent. Still Digging, Tuck