Скачать или смотреть "Amputation Lottery" - Mary Yost, President of The Sage Group LLC

“In this country, we have an amputation lottery,” said Mary Yost, President of The Sage Group LLC of the United States. “Amputation depends on who you are and where you live” and varies based on socioeconomic status, race, and a multitude of other variables. “A large percentage of these patients go directly to amputation; they don’t go to revascularization. Between 50% and almost 70% do not have an angiogram before they undergo amputation.”

Major limb amputation costs roughly $12B annually; over the lifetime, the total is somewhere around $23B —80% of which Medicare and Medicaid pay.

“These costs could be avoided,” said Mary, with earlier diagnosis and treatment. The Amputation Reduction and Compassion Act, which is currently in front of Congress, includes desperately needed provisions for education and provisions that change the way amputation reimbursements are handled, requiring appropriate diagnostic testing before amputation takes place.

“We should start with screening, at the very least, the patients who are at high risk,” she said. “If we did that, we could save limbs, save lives, and save money.”