HealthTrust renews cardiac product agreement with St. Jude

St. Jude Medical has renewed its complete line of product agreements with HealthTrust Purchasing Group, which covers St. Jude's line of cardiac rhythm management, atrial fibrillation, cardiac surgery and cardiology products.

The renewal will extend all existing purchasing agreements between the parties through December 2010, according to the St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Jude.

HealthTrust of Brentwood, Tenn., is a group purchasing organization that supports more than 3,800 not-for-profit and for-profit facilities including acute care hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices and alternate care sites.

Around the web

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.

The newly cleared offering, AutoChamber, was designed with opportunistic screening in mind. It can evaluate many different kinds of CT images, including those originally gathered to screen patients for lung cancer. 

Trimed Popup
Trimed Popup