TGA pushes for fee increases despite MedTech opposition

MedTech News: The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is set to increase its fees by 1.95% in its 2020-2021 financial year.

The TGA decided on the fee increase tied to consumer price and wage inflation, despite a consultation revealing opposition from the MedTech industry.
 
In January 2020, TGA held a consultation to gather industry feedback on three options for changing its fees and charges. TGA stated its preferred option was a 1.95% increase, in line with an indexation factor tied to indices of consumer prices and wages. The agency also discussed maintaining its 2019-2020 fee structure or increasing its rates by 4.3%.

Around half of the responses to the consultation supported TGA’s preferred option. One medicine industry body noted it would have supported a 1.95% increase if not for the financial impact of COVID-19 on its members.

Stronger opposition came from the MedTech sector, where two industry bodies opposed any fee rises “due to the increasing cost of doing business and inability to pass such costs to their customers to remain competitive in the market.”
 
The Assistive Technology Suppliers Australia (ATSA) was among the opposition. “In percentage terms the proposed increases, in part due to the $10 rounding factor, is well above any [consumer price index] growth. Despite the impact of the $10 rounding approach from previous years that is compounding, annual increases have been continually applied. Only a monopoly situation can get away with such increases,” ATSA wrote in its feedback.
 
Other MedTech groups took a different position. The Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) voiced support for raising fees by 1.95%, while also stating “it is important to also recognise that increases on fees and charges for medical device sponsors come on top of an industry already being punished under fairly dramatic price cuts by the same Government through the cuts in the Prostheses List.”