Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, LLC is pleased to announce that the Interim Report to Congress (RTC), an evaluation of the Medicare Patient Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) Demonstration prepared by Dobson | DaVanzo, has been published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The report can be found here.

The Medicare IVIG Access Act of 2012 mandated the implementation of the IVIG Demonstration in 2014. Under the Demonstration, Medicare provides a bundled payment for the services and items involved with in-home IVIG therapy for the treatment of beneficiaries with primary immune deficiency disorders (PIDD). The Demonstration was extended by Congress in 2017 under the Disaster Tax Relief and Airport and Airway Extension Act, and again in 2020 under the Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Analyses found that access to in-home IVIG therapy improved under the Demonstration, evidenced by: 1) beneficiaries’ receipt on average of two additional IVIG therapies each year, 2) reduced likelihood of missing or postponing IVIG therapies, and 3) a reduction in infection-related services due to a more regular and predictable IVIG therapy regimen. Consequently, Medicare expenditures increased by $8,082 per beneficiary per year due to the increased use of IVIG, despite Demonstration beneficiaries experiencing fewer infections and reduced expenditures for hospital outpatient and physician services. Overall, CMS paid over $20M for items and services involved with the in-home administration of IVIG under the Demonstration for the 2,682 beneficiaries who utilized the Demonstration benefit at least once as of December 28, 2020