General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMedicare Is Grievously Overpaying for Penis Pumps
Perhaps you had assumed that penis pumps were merely novelty items, sold mostly by email spammers and in a few musty sex shops. If so, you might be interested to learn that they're actually considered a medical fallback option for men whose erectile dysfunction cannot be cured by drugs like Viagraand that Medicare has been vastly overpaying for them for years.
So says a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, descriptively titled: "Medicare Payments for Vacuum Erection Systems Are More Than Twice As Much As the Amounts Paid For the Same or Similar Devices By Non-Medicare Payers."
A "vacuum erection system," in case anybody's unclear, is just a penis pump. Between 2006 and 2011, Medicare spent a total of $172 million to purchase 473,620 such devices, at an average cost to the government of $360 each. The Veterans Administration, by comparison, pays just $185 per pump. With a little Google searching, the OIG found options available for an average of $164.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/medicare-is-grievously-overpaying-for-penis-pumps/283042/
pinto
(106,886 posts)The VA has bulk purchasing negotiation procedures for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Medicare doesn't, for some reason.
Initech
(99,914 posts)msanthrope
(37,549 posts)to threads on penis pumps I'll never know. ......
calimary
(80,699 posts)DAYUM there's a lot of emphasis on erectile dysfunction! You can't go through a single quarter-hour on TV without having your face rubbed in it!
ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!
Chan790
(20,176 posts)which is negligible, the pay-rate for contraceptives falls in line with those of most insurance companies. That makes it a non-story on par with:
"Nuclear reactor reports 1,463rd day since opening without meltdown."