(HE-005) Early Versus Late, It Does Not Pay To Wait When Treating A Venous Leg Ulcer In An Outpatient Wound Clinic
Co-Author(s):
Margaret-Ann Halstead, NA – Medline Industries, LP
Introduction: Venous Leg Ulcers (VLUs) are one of the most common wounds seen in a wound care center and has an annual cost burden to Medicare of $!8,387 without achieving wound closure.1 While multiple factors account for the high cost, the increase in the number of patients that will have a VLU due to an incidence rate that is estimated to be as high as 2.2% of the Medicare population.1 More cost effective treatments or combination of treatments are needed to step up and down the wound care and to get closure of these wounds
Methods: The report looks at the financial outcomes of three different treatment combination over three different treatment periods and the visit cost weekly along with other cost are calculated to determine the total cost of care for each treatment on a VLU wound patient. A hypothetical population is then used to calculate the potential cost and revenue generation for the outpatient department using each of the treatments for a specific length of time. The example case is from an abstract presented Richard Simman, MD at SAWC in 2021 and turned into a white paper that same year2. Using current year reimbursement from Medicare3 based on the procedures performed and reimbursable along with nursing time cost4. A conservative room cost of $70 per hour was used in the calculations
Results: The total cost of care was around $10,000 versus about $1,600 for the other two treatment groups. The average weekly cost for the most profitable treatment was more than three times the lower costs treatment. The most profitable treatment did not generate twice the revenue per visit even though it was three times the cost and lasted twice as long as the other two treatment combined and did not result in a closed wound
Discussion: While the two lower cost treatments were not as profitable per visit, as the most expensive treatment. The lower cost treatments would generate more revenue annual if used on a population of 100 patients in a year due to greater volume of patients treated due to reduced length of treatment