Biotechnology Healthcare - June 2008 - (Page 57) MRSA: The Private-Sector Response BY VIRGINIA JACKSON AND DAVID B. NASH, MD, MBA With Medicare eliminating payment for the treatment of several preventable hospital errors and infections, the market for effective infection-control interventions is poised to grow quickly. Products that merge information technology with biotechnology can improve quality of care, reduce unnecessary suffering, and eliminate waste of resources. I n the United States, approximately 1 of every 22 hospitalized patients acquires a postadmission infection (Jarvis 2007). Although incidence estimates vary, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) affect more than 1.7 million people in the United States annually and cause approximately 99,000 deaths (Klevens 2007a). Moreover, the increased incidence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in recent years provides a new threat to efforts to prevent the spread of staph infections in hospitals. The imperative to fight HAIs is not driven by moral urgency alone. These infections result in $4.5 billion in annual excess healthcare costs (Guadagnino 2006), striking the pockets of state agencies, insurance companies and their employer clients, hospitals, and taxpayers Virginia Jackson is a second-year medical student at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. She can be reached at «virginia.jackson@jefferson.edu». David B. Nash, MD, MBA, is the Dr. Raymond C. and Doris N. Grandon Professor and chairman of the Department of Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College. Nash also chairs Biotechnology Healthcare’s editorial advisory board. He can be reached at «david.nash@jefferson.edu». alike. In a 2006 report, the Penn- HAIs take a front seat in news stosylvania Health Care Cost Contain- ries and legislative battles, all parties ment Council (PHC4) noted that, in involved in healthcare payment Pennsylvania, the average private- should stay apprised of efforts to sector insurance payment for the minimize the occurrence of these treatment of an inpatient who ac- infections. quires an infection in the hospiMany hospitals are looktal was $53,915, compared ing to the private sector for with an average of $8,311 solutions. Biotech compafor an inpatient without an nies are positioned to profit infection (PHC4 2006). by bringing new products The average length of and services to the market. In stay for inpatients with this article, we examine the HAIs is more than four spectrum of responses from the times that of inpatients private sector, and focus on without HAIs. UltiMRSA-directed diagnostic mately, the cost is borne tests, infection surveillance by employers and labor systems, and companies that unions in the form of higher seek to enforce standardizahealthcare premiums and lost tion of care. productivity. The burden of this cost will MRSA SCREENING FOR soon change hands, as new leg- bacteria MRSA islation will hold hospitals finanRapid detection of infected and cially accountable for HAIs. The colonized patients, along with their Centers for Medicare and Medic- subsequent isolation, has the potenaid Services is redefining the para- tial to limit the spread of HAIs. meters for reimbursement for care Three state legislatures — Pennsylassociated with HAIs, and effective vania, New Jersey, and Illinois — October 2008, Medicare will no broke new ground in 2007 by passlonger pay for the cost of treating ing bills that require hospitals to preventable infections, errors, and routinely test high-risk patients for injuries that occur in hospitals (Pear MRSA (Sack 2007). Because pa2007). Presumably, private insur- tients bringing community-acquired ance companies will follow suit. As MRSA into hospitals has increasMAY/JUNE 2008 · BIOTECHNOLOGY HEALTHCARE 57 Photoresearchers
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