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# 2 New Private Payor Program Participants
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/2-new-private-payor-program-participants/
- Published: 2018-09-05T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:29:56.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5142272

FDA commissioner **Scott Gottlieb** says that CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and United Health Group have joined the agency’s Private Payor Program to participate in medical device manufacturer pre-submission meetings. In an *FDA Voice* blog [post](https://blogs.fda.gov/fdavoice/index.php/2018/09/new-program-with-payors-aims-to-accelerate-patient-access-to-medical-devices?ref=fdaweb.com), Gottlieb writes that the program is a “voluntary opportunity for manufacturers to receive feedback from FDA and other non-governmental health technology assessors/payors on what’s needed in order to develop a more efficient evidence generation strategy during the FDA pre-submission meeting.” The Private Payor Program started in 2016, building on the success of the Parallel Review Program that sped Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services coverage decisions.

“By facilitating communications between device makers and payors, FDA hopes to shorten the time between FDA approval and coverage decisions,” Gottlieb writes. “This can be particularly beneficial for manufacturers creating new and innovative devices who also need to secure coverage of their devices by payors. The process of acquiring clearance or approval from FDA and then coverage from a payor can take several years to achieve. This delay can be challenging for patients, particularly those with limited alternatives for diagnosing and treating potentially serious medical conditions. In some cases, the long timeframe between those decisions may also have an adverse consequence on smaller medical device companies, which may be unable to sustain themselves for an extended duration of time with limited revenue streams. These challenges are significant. And they’re driving our continued efforts to identify new ways to improve the speed and efficiency of our regulatory review process and coverage decisions.”