Home Health & Hospice Week

The new medical device tax may make your costs skyrocket, especially when the added costs from the 2.3-percent tax trickle down from manufacturers to providers. The Internal Revenue Service just passed the final rule on the new medical device tax, which becomes effective on Jan. 1, 2013. The tax comes as part of the 2010 "Obamacare" law. The IRS expects the tax to net nearly $30 billion in government revenues through 2022, Reuters reports. The tax applies to most medical devices used or implanted by providers -- from tongue depressors to pacemakers. But the tax excludes over-the-counter devices like hearing aids and eyeglasses, as well as prosthetics and certain experimental treatment devices. Medical device companies have been lobbying furiously against the tax, and now they’re lobbying to either repeal the tax or at least delay the start date.