Hospitals and third-party companies have long been cleaning, retesting, and reusing medical devices, including those labeled as single-use, an approach known as “reprocessing.”

Often, this can help cut down medical waste and save money, and it doesn’t appear to compromise safety: As of 2000, the FDA requires reprocessed devices to meet the same formal regulatory standards of the original products, including premarket testing.

In 2008, the Government Accountability Office found that “the available data, while limited, do not indicate that reprocessed [single-use devices] present an elevated health risk.”

However, the use of these refurbished devices still faces resistance from original manufacturers, who profit more from the devices being disposed of after one use or reprocessing devices themselves, according to a 2020 review in Health Affairs.

The medical reprocessing industry hopes a recent court ruling may change that.

Find more about the reprocessing suit here.—CC

Remember the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic? (How could you forget, right?)

The illness has so far caused 1.2 million deaths in the US, according to the World Health Organization, and cost the national economy an estimated $16 trillion to date. Not to mention long Covid and the ongoing mental health effects, especially on younger people.

Hospitals took a financial hit due to Covid as well and have faced ongoing challenges in the years since the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic, including staffing shortages and a rise in patient violence.

Addressing socioeconomic challenges may be one of the best ways to prevent infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics, according to a study from the University of Georgia and Oklahoma State University.

Is the industry prepared for the next pandemic?—CM

Nearly three years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced in a statement it would rescind 2022 guidance from the Biden administration that allowed patients to have abortions in emergency situations.

Former President Joe Biden sought to override state laws banning abortion and ensure pregnant people had access to reproductive care in emergencies, like if their life was at risk.

Biden’s guidance cited the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), a national law that requires hospitals to examine and treat all patients even if they can’t pay for their care. Under CMS’s new directive, EMTALA is still in place as federal law and encompasses treating “identified emergency medical conditions” for a pregnant person and/or an unborn child, but the federal government is no longer directly asking states to provide abortions during emergencies.

As a result, some experts worry a lack of directive could lead to more confusion and fear around how best to provide care.

Here’s how the new guidance could create more confusion.—CM