Austria - Medical EquipmentAustria - Medical Equipment

Medical equipment refers to the non-pharmaceutical items used in a healthcare environment including consumables, diagnostic imaging, dental products, orthopedics/prosthetics, patient aids, and other medical devices.
 

Overview

Healthcare spending in Austria according to SHA (System of Health Accounts) totaled $45.4 billion (10.4% of GDP) in 2017. Viewed over time, healthcare spending in Austria has been increasing at a rate of 4.9% annually over the past twenty years. 

The Austrian healthcare system includes 275 hospitals and clinics with around 65,000 available beds (7.4 beds/thousand population).

The number of available beds has been declining since the 1980s in line with attempts to cut waste in healthcare budgets. Despite this trend, Austria still has one of the highest bed/patient ratios in Europe. Around 67% of hospital beds are in general hospitals, with 26% in specialized clinics and rehabilitation centers, and 7% in sanatoriums or long-term care facilities. In 2018, there were around 46,500 medical doctors practicing in Austria, or 5.3 doctors/thousand population.

Austria has a statutory national healthcare insurance program that covers 99% of the population through 21 different mandatory carriers.
One of the signature reforms of the most recent coalition government was to reduce the complexity and administrative cost of healthcare financing by consolidating and merging the many individual carriers to only five. After passing legislation in December2018, the new structures were expected to be in place in January 2020; however, the abrupt government change underway in 2019 with snap elections in 2019 leave the future of these reforms uncertain.

The healthcare ecosystem in Austria is further characterized by a rift between in-patient and out-patient care. While out-patient services are primarily financed and controlled by the social insurance carriers who maintain contracts with physicians and other providers, hospital-based treatment is provided at public and private facilities and financed through a complex system of payments and reimbursements that is shared by regional governments (funded through federal taxes), the social insurance carriers, and private insurance companies. 

Treatment deemed necessary and effective by insurance carriers is covered, with modest to significant co-payment for dental and vision care as well as health aids. Products designed to be used in a hospital setting must be officially recognized as a reimbursable treatment option under the Austrian DRG (disease-related group) in order to be viable in this market.

There are three main drivers in Austria’s medical device market: 1) the aging population and accompanying increasing burden of disease: It is estimated that by 2030, 23% of the Austrian population will be over 65; 2) the rapid pace of technological development resulting in the demands for digitalization, interoperability, personalized medicine, and mobile health are impacting purchasing decisions throughout the sector; and 3) poor lifestyle choices, including high smoking and alcohol consumption rates paired with a
sedentary lifestyle, predict increasing rates of cancer, lung disease, heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes.

The most significant constraint on the market are public healthcare payers (social insurance carriers, private insurance companies) working to rein in spending. Much of their energy is being spent on internal matters as they merge and reorganize. Another brake on the market is likely to be the EU Medical Device Regulation (2017), which established new, much stricter registration, certification, and auditing requirements for all medical devices.  The short timeline for implementation of this regulation is creating uncertainty as buyers are wary of purchasing goods that may not meet the new standards. Market experts expect some products to vanish from the market completely after failing the stricter certification process. The new regulations are also expected to hurt smaller companies that do not have the resources to invest in required upgrades of their production, processes, and recordkeeping improvements, nor the financing for the certification process itself. This new regulation may open new opportunities to U.S. exporters of high quality devices wanting to establish themselves in the European market.

There are currently around 550 companies in Austria that produce or sell medical technologies, of which 171 are manufacturers and 383 are distributor or service companies. Austria’s medical manufacturers include a mix of large national companies with global operations such as MedEl (cochlear implants), Greiner Bio One (diagnostics) and Semperit (surgical and examination gloves), as well as medical SMEs, and the subsidiaries of multinational corporations such as GE Healthcare and Siemens Healthineers. 

Local production in 2017 reached approximately $2.3 billion with exports of just under $2.2 billion.  Some of these exports include regional redistribution of imported equipment by Austrian and international companies.  A directory of life science companies active in Austria can be found at www.lifesciencesdirectory.at/.

Austrian imports of medical equipment were valued at $2.27 billion in 2017 with a continued upward trend projected. While Germany supplies around one-third of Austria’s medical technology, the United States is the second most important supplier with a market share of 15% and a leading role in orthopedics and prosthetics. Other major players include Switzerland, the Netherlands, China and Japan.

Leading Sub-Sectors

• Health IT, estimated 15% annual (CAGR) growth between now and 2025
• Minimally-invasive surgical equipment and supplies  
• Orthopedic supplies and equipment
• Dental supplies and equipment
• Medical consumables                              

Opportunities

Increasing Interoperability: The increasing penetration of HealthIT has broad implications for the medical equipment market, as interoperability and advanced communications options become standard requirements for a whole range of medical devices.

Reducing Inefficiencies: Reducing waste and improving efficiency are growing increasingly important as administrators work to reduce the high cost of healthcare. Examples include cheaper and more efficient screening and diagnostic technologies.

Adapting to Demographic Shifts: Austria’s aging population will spur a growing demand for age-related care and equipment, including dental instruments, diagnostic technologies, cardiovascular monitoring, mobility solutions, artificial joints, etc.

Vienna’s General Hospital: The City of Vienna is planning to spend $1.6 billion between now and 2030 to modernize Vienna’s most important teaching hospital, one of the largest clinics in Europe.

Medical Device Regulation 2017: As the MDR 2017 comes into force, it is likely to force lower quality products from the market, opening new opportunities for high-quality U.S. products.

Web Resources

Statistik Austria (Austrian Statistics Office)
http://www.statistik.at

LISA Austria (Austrian Life Sciences Cluster)
http://lifescienceaustria.at

Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (Austrian Federal Ministry for Health)
http://www.bmg.gv.at/

MedTech Europe (Umbrella Organization of European Medical Technology Associations)
http://www.medtecheurope.org

Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (Austrian Federal Institute for Health)
http://www.oebig.at

Hauptverband der österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger
(Association of Austrian Social Insurance Carriers)
http://www.sozialversicherung.at

FEEI (Austrian Association for the Electric and Electronics Industries)
http://www.feei.at