Medicare coverage of outpatient ambulatory intravenous antibiotic therapy:A program that pays for itself

A number of studies have documented the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiv eness of outpatient intravenous (iv) antibiotic therapy for patients with i nfectious diseases. Nevertheless, Medicare policy prohibiting coverage of o utpatient, self-administered drugs has severely limited access of Medicare patients to ambulatory iv therapy, thus forcing them to rely on more costly , inpatient hospital care. To test the hypothesis that a new Medicare benef it providing coverage for ambulatory iv antibiotic therapy could significan tly reduce the program's expenditures for the treatment of infectious disea ses (including pneumonia, osteomyelitis, cellulitis, and endocarditis), a c ost model was constructed with use of patient care information from the cli nical literature as well as clinical experts, Medicare data, and other medi cal claims databases. The model shows cumulative 5-year savings of nearly $ 1.5 billion associated with the new Medicare benefit. Policy makers should consider implementing such a benefit.