Hospitals in 2011 paid 34% less per device for drug-eluting stents than they paid in 2007, according to a new AdvaMed report which also found substantial price-cuts for 6 other categories of major medical implants.

Hospitals in 2011 paid an average of 34% less for drug-eluting stents than they did in 2007, according to a new report. They also paid 27% less for bare metal stents and 26% less for both pacemakers and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators.

The findings reinforce previous AdvaMed studies, which have found that medical device spending makes up a consistently small percentage of the U.S. healthcare budget and that average device prices have increased at a rate of about 1% per year since 2000.