# Medicare built a shortcut for breakthrough devices. Now it wants to close it without checking if it worked.

- slug: medicare-built-a-shortcut-for-breakthrough-devices-now-it-wants-to-close-it-without-checking-if
- date: 2026-04-16
- category: Biotech & Life Sciences

CMS created a faster Medicare payment pathway for breakthrough devices in 2021. It has paid out roughly $464M a year through that pathway. It never tracked whether the devices helped patients. Now it wants to eliminate the pathway before anyone asks what was on the other side.

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