WASHINGTON (AP) — It doesn't compute: Medicare's bill for artificial feet has jumped by more than half, although foot and leg amputations due to diabetes continue to decline dramatically.
Medicare paid $94 million for artificial feet in 2010, according to research conducted for The Associated Press. That was nearly $35 million more than in 2005, even though in 2010, Medicare covered about 1,900 fewer such prostheses.
It works out to a 58 percent cost increase over five years.
Artificial feet represent a tiny slice of the $550 billion Medicare spends on health care for 49 million older and disabled people. But the cost spike highlights basic questions about affordability, technology and appropriate care that confront lawmakers looking for a way out of Medicare's financial troubles.
Program officials say they're concerned. Medicare "is aware of and shares the concerns this research raises about lower limb prosthetics," said spokesman Brian Cook.
The industry says there's nothing wrong. Patients are benefiting from new technology in artificial limbs used for wounded troops returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Others dispute that conclusion, saying there's no body of scientific evidence to back it up.
A doctor who works with amputees questioned whether a high-tech foot designed for an active person is appropriate for an elderly patient with diabetes, a major cause of lower-limb amputations. Losing a foot means the patient is at an advanced stage of the disease and probably dealing with other problems that limit physical activity.
"A lot of our patients are just trying to transfer from the wheelchair to the toilet," said Dr. Howard Gilmer of National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington.
A report last year by the Health and Human Services inspector general found widespread questionable billing for lower-limb prostheses, a category that includes artificial feet.
In 2009, Medicare inappropriately paid $43 million for lower-limb prostheses that did not meet certain basic standards for accurate claims, investigators said. They found an additional $61 million in questionable billing in cases where it wasn't clear that the Medicare beneficiary had seen the referring doctor in the previous five years, raising questions about whether the prosthesis was medically necessary.
Industry officials say they are committed to battling fraud and the AP's statistics simply show the march of progress.
"We have had a huge improvement in the quality of devices that we can provide, thanks to all the knowledge that has flowed from providing care to soldiers," said Thomas Fise, executive director of the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association, a trade group. "That technology has now become available, and patients believe they should be entitled to it, and who is going to tell those Medicare beneficiaries they are not entitled?"
"What the government got for their money was value-added," said Tom DiBello, president of the group, which represents professionals who fit artificial limbs as well as manufacturers.
The AP's analysis was done by Avalere Health, a data-crunching firm serving private and government health care clients. It looked at Medicare spending on 13 codes for different types of artificial feet that the program covers, many with multiple manufacturers. The analysis suggests the sharp rise in spending is mainly due to a shift in the types of prosthetics being given to Medicare beneficiaries, from ones that cost several hundred dollars to more sophisticated types that run in the low thousands.
