HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION ALERT

Specialized Vascular Access, more specifically PICC lines, have historically only been placed in hospitals and infusion centers. The wait time to get patients scheduled for this procedure often times causes delays in patients receiving antibiotics or being discharged from hospitals, resulting in an additional hospital days.

Our company is the first in Lane County to provide Specialized Vascular Access to patients in their homes, physician offices, and skilled nursing facilities. This also eliminates the need for medical transport for most of our patients.

With the cost savings, as well as patient convenience and care, you would think insurance companies would be jumping at the chance to partner with a company like ours, but unfortunately, all of the insurance companies that we have contacted, including Medicare, have policies that prohibit them from working with nurse owned companies. (We do have two Medical Directors providing oversight for our practice.) These same insurance companies will cover the costs if these same nurses perform these services in a hospital or infusion center, or if a physician owned the company.

We consistently hear the news that patient deductibles continue to rise and Medicare is short on funds. I have seen throughout my career opportunities to help reduce these costs that get dismissed because “that’s the policy” or “that’s the way we’ve always done it”. It’s time our insurance companies start looking for ways to help their patients reduce healthcare costs and minimize the impact on their day-to-day lives. It’s time to look outside the box.

We are all concerned about continually rising healthcare costs. We should, at this time, be looking for ways to provide quality healthcare for lower costs. AIMS Vascular Access will be actively involved in sharing our knowledge and concerns with our rule makers in order to facilitate change.