MCKINNEY, Texas (May 23, 2017)—Soleo Health, a national provider of specialty home and alternate-site infusion services, announced it is aggressively advocating for thousands of home infusion therapy patients that stand to be affected by the recently enacted 21st Century Cures Act.
Signed into law in December 2016, the mission of the 21st Century Cures Act is to expand medical research and expedite approval of new drugs and medical devices. However, the Act also includes a critical provision that dramatically reduces the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement levels for certain home infusion therapies, effective January 2017. This places the most fragile patients with congestive heart failure and those with immunodeficiency disorders at significant risk while increasing their susceptibility to life-threatening infections and limiting access to care in the comfort of their own home.
Under the 21st Century Cures Act, certain previously covered home infusion service costs are no longer being reimbursed. While Congress remedied a reimbursement fix for home infusion patients and providers in 2021, the Cures Act created a four-year care gap (between 2017-2021). It is to be expected that, in the absence of in-home availability of these therapies, many patients will be forced to migrate to the hospital setting to receive such treatment, only resulting in increased Medicare costs and further taxing our nation’s health care system. The average cost of infusion therapy administered in a hospital versus at home is approximately 1,000 percent higher.
Soleo Health has authored a white paper providing details on the subsequent impact of the 21st Century Cures Act on vulnerable patients and the Medicare system. In addition, some patients and physicians who treat these types of patients have been outspoken about the value of receiving their therapy in the home and ability to provide them a sustainable quality of life.
As part of its patient advocacy efforts, Soleo Health also joined an industry-backed coalition, Keep My Infusion Care at Home, established to support affected patients and providers and urge policymakers to amend the provision by finding a solution that immediately addresses the care gap.
“Home infusion has become a life-saving, cost-effective solution for more than 10 million Americans today. Keeping care at home has sustained patients’ quality of life and better managed the costs associated with their respective conditions. With the new 21st Century Cures Act, these patients stand to be significantly compromised. Action must be taken immediately to help them remain at home, as this will benefit not only their health and wellbeing but our overall health care system as well,” said Drew Walk, chief executive officer at Soleo Health.
“By limiting access to home infusion services, these beneficiaries may choose to go without care altogether, which could trigger an exacerbation of symptoms, resulting in decreased quality of life, increased unplanned or preventable physician appointments, emergency department visits and hospitalizations, and unnecessary costs. For some patients, it could result in the need for end of life services, which would be a tragic consequence of this Act. Soleo Health’s role as a leading, national home infusion therapy provider is to support every effort possible surrounding all affected patients so they can remain in the comfort of their own homes and experience the current quality of life to which they are accustomed, while we continue delivering high-quality, cost-effective patient care and services,” Walk concluded.
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