Bipartisan Bill Aims to Improve Patient Safety and Reduce Health Care Costs by Reducing Blood Culture Contamination

Strategic Insights -

Representatives Angie Craig and Mike Kelly have introduced the Diagnostic Accuracy in Sepsis Act, a bipartisan bill to improve patient safety and lower health care costs by reducing blood culture contamination. The legislation requires the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to add a blood culture contamination rate measure to the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction (HAC) Program. Inaccurate sepsis tests due to blood culture contamination cost Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars annually, increase costs for patients, and worsen the antimicrobial resistance crisis.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Diagnostic Accuracy in Sepsis Act aims to improve patient safety and reduce health care costs by reducing blood culture contamination.
  • Blood culture contamination leads to incorrect diagnoses and costly, unnecessary treatments, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in costs for Medicare annually.
  • The legislation requires CMS to add a blood culture contamination rate measure to the HAC Program.
  • The bill is endorsed by Sepsis Alliance, which applauds Representatives Craig and Kelly for introducing the legislation.
  • The legislation incentivizes hospitals to take steps necessary to address the critical patient safety issue of blood culture contamination.
  • Dr. Lucy Tompkins notes that innovative technology and best practice techniques can lead to substantial reductions in contaminated blood culture tests.
  • Getting to zero percent contamination is a goal that the Diagnostic Accuracy in Sepsis Act will help achieve, avoiding unnecessary and costly treatments.

Statistics:

  • Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually by Medicare due to inaccurate sepsis tests caused by blood culture contamination.
  • Blood culture contamination leads to costly, unnecessary treatments and worsens the antimicrobial resistance crisis.
  • The HAC Program aims to reduce hospital-acquired conditions, including sepsis, which is often misdiagnosed due to contaminated blood cultures.

Sources:

  • Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig
  • U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA)
  • Sepsis Alliance
  • Dr. Lucy Tompkins (expert in Infectious Diseases, Clinical Microbiology, Epidemiology and Infection Prevention and Control)