Healthcare Industry News: I-Flow
News Release - January 2, 2007
I-Flow Announces That Medicare Now Covers ON-Q(R) under Hospital Outpatient Payment System
Effective January 1, 2007 Medicare Designates ON-Q Payable and Medically Necessary for Post-Surgical Pain ReliefLAKE FOREST, Calif.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--I-Flow Corporation (NASDAQ:IFLO ) announced that effective January 1, 2007 Medicare covers ON-Q® to treat post-surgical pain under the hospital outpatient payment system (OPPS). The decision by Medicare to change the designation of the code that includes ON-Q (A4306) signifies that Medicare has recognized this therapy to be a payable covered benefit and therefore medically necessary.
"Medicare's recognition that ON-Q is medically necessary is yet another step towards our goal of establishing ON-Q as the standard of care for post-surgical pain relief," commented Donald M. Earhart, I-Flow's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We believe and are excited that the benefits of ON-Q, which include providing significantly better pain relief than narcotics after surgery and significantly reducing the need for narcotics, have been recognized by Medicare. We expect that Medicare's recognition will positively influence private insurance companies to follow suit and, thus, get more patients back to normal faster following their surgery," he added.
I-Flow believes there are over 15 million surgeries performed annually in the U.S. where ON-Q can be used to deliver superior outcomes and I-Flow estimates that half are performed on an outpatient basis. To date, ON-Q's market leadership has been propelled by hospital inpatient procedures and I-Flow believes that this decision by Medicare represents a growth opportunity. As a result of Medicare's decision, hospitals will need to list the ON-Q device code and its cost on outpatient claims so that ambulatory payment classification rates can be adjusted accordingly.
About ON-Q
ON-Q is now labeled to significantly reduce pain better than narcotics and to significantly reduce narcotics intake after surgery. ON-Q is a simple yet elegant device that consists of a small balloon pump that holds a local anesthetic (a pain-numbing medicine) and delivers it automatically through a specially designed catheter to provide even distribution of local anesthetic over a wider area, as compared to other catheters, because of its patented wicking capabilities.
Currently, more than 55 studies on the use of ON-Q have been completed and published or presented and more are underway to demonstrate the benefits of ON-Q in additional areas such as reduced infection risk, combination therapies (e.g., local anesthetic and antibiotic mixtures, a combination of a local anesthetic and an anti-inflammatory), pediatrics and chronic pain. To learn more about the benefits of ON-Q visit www.AskYourSurgeon.com.
About I-Flow
I-Flow Corporation (www.IFLO.com) designs, develops and markets technically advanced, low cost drug delivery systems and services that are redefining the standard of care by providing life enhancing, cost effective solutions for pain relief.
"Safe Harbor" Statement
Certain disclosures made by the Company in this press release and in other reports and statements released by the Company are and will be forward looking in nature, such as comments that express the Company's opinions about trends and factors that may impact future operating results. Disclosures that use words such as the Company "believes", "anticipates", or "expects" or use similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those expected, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to republish revised forward-looking statements to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Readers are also urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by the Company in this release, which seek to advise interested parties of the risks, and other factors that affect the Company's business, as well as in the Company's periodic reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The risks affecting the Company's business include, among others: successful consummation of the previously announced sale of InfuSystem, Inc; physician acceptance of infusion-based therapeutic regimens; implementation of our direct sales strategy; dependence on our suppliers and distributors; reliance on the success of the home health care industry; our continuing compliance with applicable laws and regulations, such as the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and the FDA's concurrence with our management's subjective judgment on compliance issues; the reimbursement system currently in place and future changes to that system; competition in the industry; economic and political conditions in foreign countries; currency exchange rates; inadequacy of booked reserves; technological changes; and product availability and acceptance. All forward-looking statements, whether made in this release or elsewhere, should be considered in context with the various disclosures made by the Company about its business.
Source: I-Flow
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