Will Home Sleep Testing Replace the Sleep Center? - Q & A with Joseph Golish, MD (video)
July 23rd, 2009 by Jerusha MichaelThis week, we continue our video series of Q & A with Dr. Joseph Golish on Current & Emerging Trends in Sleep Medicine. Here’s the BIG question: Will Home Sleep Testing Replace the Sleep Center?
Dr. Golish, is a board-certified specialist in sleep medicine and author of more than 300 publications on sleep. He is a member of the Sleep Steering Committee for the ACCP. After 35 years as a professor in The Cleveland Clinic and Co-Director of Sleep Medicine, he has left academic medicine to advance a new paradigm in sleep medicine, focusing on accessibility and affordability. His goals are the proper use of HST and fostering continuity of care, in an efficient and cost-effective manner, while preserving high quality. He is currently the Medical Director of Cleveland Medical Devices (CleveMed) and Director of Sleep Center, North Coast Clinical Trials, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tags: Dr. Joseph Golish, home sleep testing, polysomnography, sleep apnea, sleep lab
August 12th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I was interest in asking if the idea of at home sleep studies is economically viable with the dramatically lower reimbursement rate home sleep studies and some insurance companies declining to reimburse for them, does that limit the the market both in size and potential profitability? Also what do you think that will happen with all of these potential health care changes?
August 20th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
A majority of insurance seem to be paying for home studies. Over the next several years I am led to believe, there will be an emphasis on cost effectiveness of procedures. This may not lead to cuts in reimbursement but more restrictions on which patients may have an expensive in lab study and how often a full PSG study may be performed. New products will probably be designed to make HST provide more diagnostic information with fewer sensors. Our cost analysis and the analysis of some other organizations has shown that HST can provide a nice profit at a reimbursement of about $250. While Medicare has a lower reimbursement this seems to be inline with private insurance.