Policy Recommendations to Curtail Skyrocketing Skin Substitute Spending

Medicare payments for skin grafts rose from $1.6 billion in 2022 to $4.5 billion in 2023 and $10.2 billion in 2024.

Through their routine review of Medicare data, accountable care organizations determined increases in skin substitute spending have been driven by several behaviors by bad actors:

• Introducing and using new and expensive skin graft products;
• Using skin substitutes in patients who are poor candidates for specialty wound care, including hospice patients receiving significant wound care in the last 3 days of life; and
• Exceeding recommended treatment minimums and continuing to treat wounds beyond clinical need.

Download our fact sheet to learn more about how ACOs have been impacted by the increase in skin substitute spending, as well as actions the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services can take to hold ACOs harmless from this spending.