Medicare steps up: Owners of Specialized Wound Management (SWM), St. Louis, Mo., discussed a Medicare reimbursement to nurse practitioners on June 9th, 2007.
SWM is a mobile wound care management company that provides on-site, expert wound care to patients who have difficulty healing. Steve and Rita Kelley, owners of SWM, hire nurse practitioners to develop a plan of care to fit each patient’s individual needs.
Recently SWM had been experiencing difficulty because Medicare denied a certain code that would cover the patients cost for treatment. Steve Kelley, CEO, contacted Medicare on June 9th to make sure that the billing for that month was processed correctly. Passionate about his work, Steve asked for the latest updates in Medicare benefits. Medicare informed Kelley of the latest benefit for both the patients and the nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners will be reimbursed for trimming patient toe nails at each visit.
Rita Kelly, President of SWM, discussed why trimming the toe nail is so important. “A majority of the patients we treat are diabetic. Blood flow in diabetic patients is a hundred times slower, making it difficult for wounds to heal in the legs and feet. If an infected nail were to dig into the skin, the foot could become infected, trun gangrene, and require amputation.”
Not only does this decrease the number of infected patients, it also increases the popularity of the field of nursing. “The job security for nurses is apparent. This benefit will only increase the number of those wanting to study the field of nursing,” states Kelley. Although the previous focus is on the benefit to nurses, SWM wants to reinforce that the main focus is always on the patient’s needs.