Rapid Pathogen Screening Inc., (RPS)
Cost-effectiveness analysis supports the use of RPS Adeno Detector™ for all cases of acute conjunctivitis
South Williamsport, PA, April 16, 2007 – Rapid Pathogen Screening Inc., (RPS) announced a new cost effectiveness analyses from the Health Economics Consulting Group LLC (HECG) shows a savings of more than $400 million annually to the healthcare system were the RPS Adeno Detector™ used on all 6 million annual cases of acute conjunctivitis. The analysis is based on Medstat MarketScan® Data from more than 200,000 insured lives. Costs approach $200.00 to treat each case of acute conjunctivitis. The bulk of conjunctivitis-related costs include physician consults, diagnostic tests, and treatments. The treatment most often includes unnecessary antibiotic use attributable to misdiagnosis, found to occur roughly 50% of the time.
This new HECG analyses further confirm a November 2006 report that demonstrated a 115.5% savings in the weighted average costs of treatments for acute conjunctivitis when the primary care physician utilizes the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) waived RPS Adeno Detector™ as opposed to a laboratory test. This study, performed by Global Health Economics Projects (GHEP) utilized the costs of one of the leading outpatient laboratories and the Medicare 2006 Physician Fee Schedule to determine the costs. The GHEP report further establishes the unnecessary costs associated with additional provider visits and antibiotic overuse.
“With the addition of the HECG study, we have two analyses that substantiate the economic value of using the RPS Adeno Detector™ routinely on all acute conjunctivitis cases,” said Robert Sambursky, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of RPS. “This information further supports our efforts to aid health care providers in achieving the most accurate diagnosis, at the most appropriate location, and resulting in the most effective therapies.”
About Rapid Pathogen Screening
Rapid Pathogen Screening, Inc. (RPS) develops point-of-care diagnostic devices for ocular diseases. The RPS Adeno Detector™, for detection of viral conjunctivitis, is the first in a family of tests.
The FDA cleared and CLIA waived RPS Adeno Detector™ is the first true point of care test available for conjunctivitis. It provides a definitive result in 10 minutes and essentially makes available an accurate laboratory confirmation of adenoviral conjunctivitis at the time of the patient exam. The RPS Adeno Detector™ can aid health care providers to make an accurate diagnosis, foster patient acceptance of more supportive therapies, identify contagious viral conjunctivitis, and limit spread of disease while simultaneously reducing ocular antibiotic resistance and the cost of unnecessary antibiotics. The test is currently being used as an in-office test within many optometry and ophthalmology offices, military bases, and other centers for care across the United States. For more information, visit www.rps-tests.com.
About Health Economics Consulting Group LLC
The Health Economics Consulting Group LLC is a group of academic health economists and health services researchers providing consulting services in a number of subject areas in health economics, including cost impact and cost-effectiveness analyses, patterns of care and estimates of treatment effects using claims data, and economic impact of health sector regulation, including antitrust, managed care regulation, licensure and capacity regulation, and administered pricing. For more information, visit www.hecg-llc.com. This project was funded in part by an unrestricted educational grant from Rapid Pathogen Screening, Inc. to Health Economics Consulting Group LLC.
About Medstat MarketScan®
Medstat MarketScan® represents a collection of integrated inpatient and outpatient medical claims and encounters, prescription drug experience, enrollment and eligibility information, and productivity data. The recognized, industry-standard databases guide the decisions required to remain competitive, improve quality, launch new products, and comply with the demands of regulators, consumers, and other healthcare agencies. For more information, visit www.medstat.com.