Tell Zimmer And Biomet To Offer Warranties!
- by: Consumers Union
- recipient: David Dvorak, CEO of Zimmer Holdings and Jeffrey Binder, CEO of Biomet
One of the largest hip and knee manufacturers, Zimmer, wants to merge with a smaller rival, Biomet.
The big company doesn't have any warranty on any product, while the smaller company has taken first steps to provide a warranty on one of its knee implants.
Don't let the only customer warranty disappear with this merger -- instead demand the new, larger company warranty all its products!
When an implant fails, it's patients like Howard (pictured right, before and after) who bear the pain of multiple surgeries, high costs, and long recoveries. The companies need to start standing by their products, and helping when a defect destroys a person's life.
With your help, we’ve already asked the Federal Trade Commission, which makes the final decision about this merger, to make sure Biomet’s warranty continues to be offered as part of the deal. But we want more. The new company should expand the warranty program to all its products, thus bringing warranty rights to thousands of patients a year.
Your message will be delivered directly to the companies in real time. Tell the CEOs to adopt warranties for hip and knee implants now!
Dear CEOs Binder and Dvorak,
I urge you to ensure that consumers get a strong warranty for knee and hip implants sold by this merged company. Biomet is the only manufacturer in the country to offer a warranty, and it's critical for consumers that this warranty be continued and ideally, expanded as part of this merger.
All the major hip and knee makers have recalled a product or line of products in the past decade -- including both Zimmer and Biomet.
While most hip and knee implants do not fail, when they do, the failure can be catastrophic. Consider the metal-on-metal hip. Zimmer recalled its metal-on-metal hips. Biomet pulled its metal-on-metal hip off the market as well. But many Americans still have these hips inside their bodies. A design flaw or manufacturing defect in an implanted product can take years to emerge as a market problem, meanwhile causing devastating harm to individual patients.
[Your comments here]
Without a warranty, the high cost of replacement surgery often is dumped on patients. And for the millions of older Americans covered by Medicare, that cost is borne in part by taxpayers.
I urge you to not only preserve the Biomet warranty, but expand the warranty program to all the products that will be produced by the larger company that emerges from this merger process.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
