Medicare spending on "skin substitutes" made of dried placenta has soared as doctors pocket lucrative discounts

[Demovictory9]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/health/skin-substitutes-medicare-costs.html

Medicare Bleeds Billions on Pricey Bandages, and Doctors Get a Cut
Medicare spending on “skin substitutes” made of dried placenta has soared as doctors pocket lucrative discounts from sellers.


Seniors across the country are wearing very expensive bandages.

Made of dried bits of placenta, the paper-thin patches cover stubborn wounds and can cost thousands of dollars per square inch.

Some research has found that such “skin substitutes” help certain wounds heal. But in the past few years, dozens of unstudied and costly products have flooded the market.

Bandage companies set ever-rising prices for new brands of the products, taking advantage of a loophole in Medicare rules, The New York Times found. Some doctors then buy the coverings at large discounts but charge Medicare the full sticker price, pocketing the difference.

Partly because of these financial incentives, many patients receive the bandages who do not need them. The result, experts said, is one of the largest examples of Medicare waste in history.

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Medicare now spends more on the bandages than on ambulance rides, anesthesia or CT scans, the analysis found


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On Friday, the Trump administration announced that it would delay a Biden-era plan to restrict Medicare’s coverage of skin substitutes, saying that it was reviewing its policies until at least 2026. President Trump had received a large campaign donation from a leading bandage seller and skewered the plan on social media.

[efhmc]

1. How do they legally get these placentas?

[Wonder Why]

2. What's legality have to do with making money these days?

[efhmc]

3. Families have various options for what to do with it. I wonder if they are given these choices by the hospital.

These options include keeping it for personal reasons or donating it for research or medical use. Some indigenous groups bury the placenta, sometimes with specific rituals or in auspicious locations, believing it protects the child or connects them to the land. Perhaps the use as "bandage" is a research choice.

[Ms. Toad]

4. Donated after scheduled C-sections, apparently.

I had a cadaver skin graft (as well as a graft from the skin on my thigh). I expect the donation process is similar to making a live organ donation.

[efhmc]

6. I vaguely remember my daughter being asked something like this before giving birth. At that time there

was a great deal of interest in saving cord blood for stem cells. I do not remember anything about the placenta, but that was 12 years ago. So glad you got this help.

[Demovictory9]

5. good question