OPAT Newsletter
Sponsored by the OPAT Outcomes Registry

Volume 4, Number 2

Editors:
Alan D. Tice, MD, John Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI
Susan Rehm, MD, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH

September/October 2004   

REPORT FROM THE FIELD –  Watch Your Costs!

~R. Brooks Gainer, MD~

• I recently was notified by a home health care agency that they had a difficult time getting Penicillin G.  They could find only one supplier, Geneva of Austria, and the cost was $131.93 for a 20 million unit (mu) vial. I checked the acquisition cost to our practice and found it to be $145.00  from the same supplier.  In June of 2002, the price was $8.07 for a 20 mu vial of Penicillin G.  I next turned to the HCPCS Manual and found that Medicare pays $1.57 for 20 mu of Penicillin G and their listed commercial payment is $40.  This prompted me to review the cost of several old and new anti-infectives used in OPAT.  I also reviewed the reimbursement from Medicare and the Medicare listed commercial reimbursements.

Oxacillin is another anti-infective that is hard to get at times.  Review of it also revealed it to be a costly drug for OPAT.  In August of 2002, one gram cost $1.56 and today it costs $6.23.  Medicare reimburses $1.42 per gram and the commercial reimbursement listed is $14.16 per gram. 

Another striking revolution came from a local pharmacist who ordered 2 oz of lindane for a patient with scabies and found the cost had gone from under $5 to now over $96 for this old medication. 

I urge you to review the cost and reimbursement figures for the anti-infectives you prescribe and administer in your practice and utilize in OPAT.

OPAT Outcomes Registry, 6240 Tacoma Mall Blvd, #104, Tacoma, WA, 98409 *  Phone:  800-577-2820, Fax:  253-274-0877 *  email:  info@opat.com