A Follow Up on the “Tale of Two Wounds” and the Madness of Skin Sub Pricing
Summary: Dr. Caroline Fife revisits a prior case comparison showing drastic differences in wound care costs between two similar cases. She highlights the absurd price variation of skin substitutes (some varying over 1000%), the financial burden on patients, and systemic incentives driving overuse.
Key Highlights:
- In one case, Medicare (and thus the patient) paid nearly **half a million dollars** for a wound‐care case vs <1% of that for another similar wound.
- The clinician profit split (50:50 on skin substitute markup) for high cost cases is exposed as part of the pricing problem.
- Dr. Fife questions how “minimally manipulated” amniotic products can command wildly different per-cm² prices.
- She urges regulatory and reimbursement reform from CMS to cap costs and reduce perverse incentives.
Read the full post on CarolineFifeMD.com
Keywords:
Caroline Fife,
skin substitute pricing,
wound care economics,
CTP overuse