For years, healthcare has been pushing to have more and more treatments done at lower acuity sites of care. This domino effect has led to an increasing number of patients managing their wound care outside the facility setting. With reimbursement and financial incentives to provide less costly, generic dressings, durable medical equipment suppliers (DMEs) are affecting the dynamic in the US Advanced Dressing Market. These incentives are especially impacting the Collagen segment, and shifting shares from manufacturers with branded products to smaller companies with lower-cost offerings.
To better understand this dynamic and its impact on the market, SmartTRAK explores:
How Medicare Manages DMEs for Dressings - Many of us are familiar with the seven Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) who work on Medicare parts A/B. DMEs work similarly with Medicare, contracting the administrative work of managing the utilization of DMEs. The US is divided into ... (read more)
Who are the Top DMEs in Wound Care? - In order to bill CMS, a DME Supplier must register with Medicare. Physicians and providers can also register to be a DME supplier, and depending on the specialty (i.e. ortho), many do offer DME supplies to their patients. The latest published data from CMS on DMEs billing to Medicare is... (read more)
The Role of DMEs in Patient Care - While patients have the right to choose any DME supplier, most patients rely on their providers to direct them to the DME that will ship them the dressings they’ll need to manage their wound care between provider visits. Ideally, there is cooperation between the supplier and the provider to ensure that... (read more)
CMS Concerns: Surgical Dressings, Especially Collagen, Have a High Level of Improper Payment - In CMS’s 2024 Medicare Fee-for-Service Supplemental Improper Payment Data, the surgical dressing category was one of three listed from DMEs, along with... (read more)
SmartTRAK is the Medtech industry’s only global Insights-as-a-Service solution for the Orthopedics, Wound Care, Regenerative Medicine and Neuro Therapy markets. SmartTRAK’s proprietary methodology turns disparate data from hundreds of sources into powerful insights customers can rely on as the trusted source for strategic decision-making. The SmartTRAK enterprise platform includes rich daily updates, comprehensive market coverage and simple-to-use tools and dashboards for market, product and financial analysis. Customers leveraging the SmartTRAK platform also have direct access to market experts for inquiries and advisory services. If you would like a demo of what SmartTRAK has to offer and see how we can help increase proficiency, improve productivity and reduce costs for your company, just click here.