US Senator calls for ban on federal healthcare funds for Chinese-made medical devices

Washington, Aug 26 (IANS) Republican Senator Rick Scott has called for a ban on US federal healthcare funds being used to purchase Chinese-made medical devices, warning that internet-connected equipment could expose sensitive patient information and hospital systems to cyber threats.

Scott said Congress should block hospitals and clinics receiving Medicare, Medicaid or other federal money from buying equipment manufactured by Chinese companies.

He also called for Chinese-made medical devices to be phased out of every healthcare facility accepting federal funding and proposed making foreign medical-data espionage a criminal offence.

“We must cut off federal health care dollars – Medicaid, Medicare, all of it – from any hospital or clinic that purchases medical devices from Chinese companies,” Scott wrote in an opinion piece published on Tuesday.

“We must phase Chinese-made medical equipment out of every facility accepting federal funding,” he added.

The Florida senator based his demand partly on cybersecurity vulnerabilities found in the Contec CMS8000 patient monitor, which is manufactured by a China-based company.

The devices are used to display patients’ vital signs, including heart rate, blood pressure and electrocardiogram readings.

The US Food and Drug Administration issued a safety communication in January 2025 warning that the Contec CMS8000 and the relabelled Epsimed MN-120 could put patients at risk when connected to the internet.

Federal authorities identified three vulnerabilities. They said the monitors could be controlled remotely by an unauthorised user, fail to operate as intended or expose the networks to which they were connected.

The software also included a “backdoor” that could allow unauthorised actors to bypass cybersecurity controls.

Once connected to the internet, the monitors collected and transmitted patient information outside the healthcare environment, according to FDA.

Scott said such devices could transmit diagnoses, medication information and biometric readings from American healthcare facilities.

“A machine designed to help doctors and hospitals make life or death decisions conveniently was capable of sending sensitive patient data straight home to Beijing,” he wrote.

The FDA, however, said it was not aware of any cybersecurity incident, injury or death linked to the vulnerabilities.

Contec subsequently developed a software patch. The FDA said in July 2025 that the patch removed networking functions from the affected devices, making them usable only for local monitoring in the patient’s physical presence.

Scott argued that the vulnerability illustrated a broader national-security risk created by equipment connected to sensitive American networks.

“The same is true, and may be even more dangerous, when that technological device is sitting in a hospital’s intensive care unit,” he said.

He urged Congress to use trade-enforcement measures to restrict Chinese medical equipment and said American patients should be confident that the machines monitoring them were controlled by their doctors and hospitals.

The Commerce Department has opened a national-security investigation into imports of personal protective equipment, medical consumables and medical equipment under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.

The investigation is examining US reliance on foreign suppliers, foreign subsidies, possible supply-chain manipulation and whether tariffs or quotas are required to protect national security. It covers equipment including hospital beds, pacemakers, insulin pumps, ventilators, scanners and patient-monitoring devices.

–IANS

lkj/rs