Special report: Bone Densitometry market on the mend

May 09, 2011

From the May 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

“We have a number of units already engaged with Brookdale, which is the largest national chain for assisted living facilities,” says Stoltenberg.

Back to DXA access
Sales of bone densitometry systems and patient access to services in private and group physicians’ offices may have declined, but they were by no means stifled completely during Medicare’s slump in reimbursement rates. Larger practices continued to buy DXA units. Manufacturers are also aware of the impact a flat or down-market has on patient access to screening.

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“We’ll see additional growth in the traditional osteoporosis testing market if the reimbursement is locked in, if not, we’ll probably see growth remain stable. In the meantime, we are looking at additional clinical capabilities, which allow us to expand outside the traditional DXA markets,” says Jenkins.

Case in point, Hologic has been working to promote a new DXA procedure that can actually alert clinicians to cardiovascular disease by screening for abdominal aortic calcification.

“If you have calcium in your aorta, that is basically a risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” says Jenkins. “It correlates very strongly with calcification in your coronary arteries.”

Markers for growth
In order to really make a difference and improve access to bone density screening, Siris says it is the primary care doctors that need to be made aware of their role in osteoporosis prevention.

“Most people in America get their care from primary care doctors. We’ve got to get the primary care doctors aboard. Until we do, there is not going to be a lower risk of fractures.”

One major advance in the industry that may hold the ticket to better access for patients is the positive health data coming out of government-funded economic models. Data procured for U.S. Congress to assess the economic cost of fractures that occur every year show that there are very real benefits from screening large numbers of people. Some data suggest that large-scale screening could even lead to savings of more than $1 billion within five years, says Laster.

Ultimately, only time will tell if new health data, sufficient Medicare reimbursement and the adoption of expanded osteoporosis screening recommendations will be enough to patch the problem of patient access to osteoporosis screening in America.

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