Saving Millions of Dollars for Insurers
While Saving Your Subscribers’ Lives
Overview
Small bowel surgery is the 2nd most common emergency surgery in the USA, and carries the highest complication rate (47%) (Journal Amer Med Assn). Hospitalizations are expensive, running upwards of $3,000 a day. According to AHRQ (HHS), small bowel obstruction (SBO) surgery patients average 14.2 days in the hospital; average costs are $114,175. The average cost of adhesion surgery is $65,955 per AHRQ.
A new therapy promises to stop many recurring surgeries for a fraction of these costs – around $7,500.
Decrease costly surgeries and hospitalizations.
Surgery is standard treatment for life-threatening SBO. Post-surgical adhesions are universally regarded as the primary cause of SBO. Thus, surgical repair is the primary cause of future SBO surgeries. Nearly 1 in 5 patients (18%) are re-hospitalized within 30 days after SBO surgery – often for another surgery.
In a mammoth study of post-surgical hospital readmissions published in Lancet (N=29,790), 34.6% of patients who had abdominal or pelvic surgery were re-admitted for an adhesion-related event – 22.1% in the first year after surgery. Between surgeries, readmissions and recurring SBO events, the costs for a single patient can easily climb to well over $250,000. We propose you consider requiring an effective non-surgical therapy that can significantly lower your hospitalization and surgery costs – and save your patients’ lives.
Clear Passage® Physical Therapy’s program can obviate many of those costs at a cost of $7,500 with the patient or Company covering travel to any of our US locations (avg. $1,000.) The therapy has been shown to decrease recurring bowel obstructions by 15 times the norm (p=0.0003), greatly reducing surgical risks and costs.
Per a recent Phase 2 Controlled study published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology, total bowel obstructions in the control group (no therapy) recurred at 14.52%. For those receiving the new therapy, recurrence was under 1% [0.97%, (p=0.0003.)] Further, the therapy costs a fraction of the cost of hospitalization and surgery ($7,500 vs. $114,175.)
Cost Savings For Insurers
Since the therapy can effectively eliminate 14 of 15 total bowel obstructions, it provides huge monetary benefits at a minimal cost. This chart shows cost savings for 150 patients. Extrapolating the above numbers, with therapy eliminating surgery for 140 of the 150, the monetary savings are roughly $15,000,000 for the payor!
History
The therapy was developed by a physical therapist and her husband, a massage therapist, to help eliminate debilitating adhesion pain she suffered following pelvic surgery and radiation therapy. Concerned about creating more adhesions, her doctor advised against another surgery. This set the couple on a lifelong quest to decrease adhesions manually.
Joined by the gynecologist/surgeon/Chief of Staff of a large regional hospital, they began investigating their ability to decrease abdominopelvic adhesions. After published studies showed that the manual therapy opened fallopian tubes in 61% (143/235) of patients, the team began to receive calls from patients with recurring bowel obstructions.
Recurring Bowel Obstructions – A Far Too Common Problem
Patients called them, asking if they could open larger tubes: the intestines. The first patient with recurring SBO was seen in 2008. She reported seven prior surgeries for adhesions and bowel obstructions (you can imagine the cost.) Her surgeon had scheduled her eighth surgery when she contacted the therapists, asking for help. After a 20-hour session of Clear Passage® therapy given over 5 days, the patient was able to cancel her surgery and begin eating solid foods again. Eleven years later, she has never had another surgery for adhesions or bowel obstruction (though she did have a bit more therapy, a few years later.)
Excited to be saving lives, the team began treating more and more patients. As in the first patient, they found recurring adhesions and bowel obstructions were a common occurrence among patients who had had two or more abdominal or pelvic surgeries. They published a Validated Quality of Life test and started measuring results of their therapy – reducing adhesions and recurring obstructions. This culminated in a controlled Phase 2 study published in 2018 showing that a 5-day course of the manual therapy at a cost of $7,500 decreased recurring total bowel obstructions by 15 times (p=0.0003.)
Where’s The Proof?
Images below show the before and after X-rays of a patient who was scheduled for emergency surgery but opted instead for the therapy. In one image, an hourglass shaped stricture/obstruction was totally cleared by the therapy; in another case, a 3-inch long string stricture/obstruction was also totally cleared by the therapy. Surgery was avoided, a relief to the patient and physician and a great savings to the insurer. The results of the Phase 2 controlled study are shown below. It is undeniable: this therapy decreases adhesions, including those that lead to life-threatening bowel obstructions.
Savings For Insurers
Per AHRQ (HHS):
- The average cost of adhesion removal surgery is $65,955.
- The average cost of bowel resection surgery is $114,175.
- The average cost of the Clear Passage® manual therapy at this date is $7,500.
- For an insurer that may treat 500 total bowel obstructions with surgery, the savings are close to $5 million a year.
Conclusion
To learn more about this therapy, call us directly at Clear Passage Therapies, 352-336-1433. Ask for Larry Wurn.
If you’d like a free consult, please take 20 minutes and fill out this form and we can determine if therapy would be a good fit for you.
