Erythropoietic therapy: cost efficiency and reimbursement

The practice of blood conservation is aimed at improving patient outcomes by avoiding allogeneic transfusions via a coordinated multidisciplinary, multipronged approach. The numerous blood conservation techniques and transfusion alternatives now available are described.

Ongoing concerns exist regarding the availability of the nation's and the world's blood supply. In addition, the number of measures required to ensure blood safety has led to increases in the price of blood and blood products over the past 10-15 years. Moreover, blood transfusion carries inherent risks even under the most favorable circumstances. Investigations have established that injudicious transfusion is associated with development of ventilator-associated pneumonia, nosocomial infection, and organ dysfunction. Because most single blood-conservation techniques reduce blood usage by a mere 1-2 units, a series of integrated conservation approaches are required. These include preoperative autologous donation, use of erythropoietic agents, blood conservation techniques such as acute normovolemic hemodilution, individualized assessment of anemia tolerance, implementation of conservative transfusion thresholds, meticulous surgical techniques, and judicious use of phlebotomy and pharmacologic agents for limiting blood loss. Erythropoietic agents such as epoetin alfa have been used successfully to increase hemoglobin and decrease transfusion requirements, and are appropriate when used in advance of elective surgical procedures. Acquisition costs of erythropoietic stimulating agents versus costs of blood justify economic evaluation by hospitals to make the most cost-effective choice under current economic constraints.

Initiating a blood management program requires planning and support from those who are concerned about blood usage reduction and outcomes improvement. Launching a vigorous and ongoing educational program to raise awareness about the risks and hazards associated with blood transfusion is an important step in helping to reshape the medical staffs' attitudes about transfusion and the most cost-effective way to achieve clinical goals.