Evaluation of a Physician Peer-Benchmarking Intervention for Practice Variability and Costs for Endovenous Thermal Ablation.

Importance: The frequency of use of endovenous thermal ablation (EVTA) to treat chronic venous insufficiency has increased rapidly in the US. Wide variability in EVTA use among physicians has been documented, and standard EVTA rates were defined in the 2017 Medicare database. Objective: To assess whether providing individualized physician performance reports is associated with reduced variability in EVTA use and cost savings. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective quality improvement study used data from all US Medicare patients aged 18 years or older who underwent at least 1 EVTA between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017, and between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019. All US physicians who performed at least 11 EVTAs yearly for Medicare patients in 2017 and 2019 were included in the assessment. Intervention: A performance report comprising individual physician EVTA use per patient with peer-benchmarking data was distributed to all physicians in November 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures: The mean number of EVTAs performed per patient was calculated for each physician. Physicians who performed 3.4 or more EVTA procedures per patient per year were considered outliers. The change in the number of procedures from 2017 to 2019 was analyzed overall and by inlier and outlier status. An economic analysis was also performed to estimate the cost savings associated with the intervention. Results: A total of 188 976 patients (102 222 in 2017 and 86 754 in 2019) who had an EVTA performed by 1558 physicians were included in the analysis. The median patient age was 72.2 years (IQR, 67.9-77.8 years); 67.3% of patients were female, and 84.9% were White. Among all physicians, the mean (SD) number of EVTAs per patient decreased from 2017 to 2019 (1.97 [0.85] vs 1.89 [0.77]; P < .001). There was a modest decrease in the mean number of EVTAs per patient among inlier physicians (1.83 [0.57] vs 1.78 [0.55]; P < .001) and a more substantial decrease among outlier physicians (4.40 [1.01] vs 3.67 [1.41] ; P < .001). Outliers in 2017 consisted of 90 physicians, of whom 71 (78.9%) reduced their EVTA use after the intervention. The number of EVTAs per patient decreased by a mean (SD) of 0.09 (0.46) procedures overall (median, 0.10 procedures [IQR, -0.10 to 0.30 procedures]; P < .001). The estimated cost savings associated with the decrease was $6.3 million in 2019. Conclusions and Relevance: In this quality improvement study, substantial variability in the number of EVTAs performed per patient was observed across the US. When physicians were provided with a 1-time peer-benchmarked performance report card, the timing of the intervention was associated with a significant decrease in the number of EVTAs performed per patient, particularly among outlier physicians. This quality improvement initiative was associated with reduced variability in EVTA use in the US and a substantial savings for Medicare.

Private payers' varicose vein policies are inaccurate, disparate, and not evidence based, which mandates a proposal for a reasonable and responsible policy for the treatment of venous disease.

Varicose veins afflict more than one in five Americans, and although varicose veins may be an asymptomatic cosmetic concern in some, many others experience symptoms of pain, aching, heaviness, itching, and swelling. More advanced venous disease can result from untreated venous insufficiency. The complications of chronic venous disease, including bleeding, thrombosis, and ulceration, are seen in up to 2 million Americans annually. Numerous reports have documented venous disease adversely affects quality of life and that treatment of venous disease can improve quality of life. It has previously been documented that private insurers, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services subcontractors for that matter, have disparate policies that in many instances are self-serving, contain mistakes, use outdated evidence, and disregard evidence-based guidelines. The two leading venous medical societies, the American Venous Forum and the American Venous and Lymphatic Society, have come together to review the varicose vein coverage policies of seven major U.S. private medical insurance carriers whose policies cover more than 150 million Americans. The authors reviewed the policies for venous disease and, if significant gaps or inconsistencies are found, we hope to point them out, and, finally, to propose a thoughtful and reasonable policy based on the best available evidence.

Triage of patients with venous and lymphatic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic - The Venous and Lymphatic Triage and Acuity Scale (VELTAS) : A consensus document of the International Union of Phlebology (UIP), Australasian College of Phlebology (ACP), American Vein and Lymphatic Society (AVLS), American Venous Forum (AVF), European College of Phlebology (ECoP), European Venous Forum (EVF), Interventional Radiology Society of Australasia (IRSA), Latin American Venous Forum, Pan-American Society of Phlebology and Lymphology and the Venous Association of India (VAI) This consensus document has been co-published in Phlebology [DOI: 10.1177/0268355520930884] and Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders [DOI: 10.1016/j.jvsv.2020.05.002]. The publications are identical except for minor stylistic and spelling differences in keeping with each journal's style. The contribution has been published under a Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic has resulted in diversion of healthcare resources to the management of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus. Elective interventions and surgical procedures in most countries have been postponed and operating room resources have been diverted to manage the pandemic. The Venous and Lymphatic Triage and Acuity Scale was developed to provide an international standard to rationalise and harmonise the management of patients with venous and lymphatic disorders or vascular anomalies. Triage urgency was determined based on clinical assessment of urgency with which a patient would require medical treatment or surgical intervention. Clinical conditions were classified into six categories of: (1) venous thromboembolism (VTE), (2) chronic venous disease, (3) vascular anomalies, (4) venous trauma, (5) venous compression and (6) lymphatic disease. Triage urgency was categorised into four groups and individual conditions were allocated to each class of triage. These included (1) medical emergencies (requiring immediate attendance), example massive pulmonary embolism; (2) urgent (to be seen as soon as possible), example deep vein thrombosis; (3) semi-urgent (to be attended to within 30-90 days), example highly symptomatic chronic venous disease, and (4) discretionary/non-urgent- (to be seen within 6-12 months), example chronic lymphoedema. Venous and Lymphatic Triage and Acuity Scale aims to standardise the triage of patients with venous and lymphatic disease or vascular anomalies by providing an international consensus-based classification of clinical categories and triage urgency. The scale may be used during pandemics such as the current COVID-19 crisis but may also be used as a general framework to classify urgency of the listed conditions.

Significant physician practice variability in the utilization of endovenous thermal ablation in the 2017 Medicare population.

BACKGROUND: There has been a substantial increase in the use of procedures to treat lower extremity venous disease in the United States over the past decade. A specialty society-selected metric was applied to evaluate the use of endovenous thermal ablation (EVTA) in Medicare beneficiaries and factors associated with physician practice variations. We used confidential physician reports of this benchmark data to increase physician recognition of individualized usage relative to their peers. METHODS: We used 100% Medicare fee-for-service claims data to identify all patients 18 years of age and older who underwent at least one lower extremity EVTA over a 1-year period (January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017). A physician-specific annual rate of EVTA performed per patient was calculated. Individual physician results were shared confidentially with each provider billing Medicare for more than 10 ablations during the study period by mail, benchmarked to the distribution of use by their peers nationally. Hierarchical multivariable linear regression was used to identify patient and provider characteristics associated with high rates of thermal ablations per patient. RESULTS: A total of 102,145 Medicare beneficiaries (median age, 72.1 years; 67.8% female) underwent an EVTA by 2462 physicians during the study period. The majority (96.4%) of patients underwent 1 to 5 ablations, 3.3% underwent 6 to 10 ablations, and 0.3% underwent 11 or more ablations. The median and mean physician ablation rates were 1.6 (interquartile range, 1.3-2.2) and 1.9 ± 0.8 ablations per patient annually, respectively. There were 106 physicians (4.3%) who had an ablation rate of 3.4 or greater, which is two or more standard deviations above the national mean. After adjusting for patient-level variables, characteristics independently associated with outlier physicians included specialties other than vascular surgery, fewer years in practice, and higher overall venous ablation practice volume (P ≤ .03). CONCLUSIONS: Using a physician-generated metric of performance, the physician use EVTA performed annually per patient is highly variable, and this variability correlated with physician discipline, years in practice, and is more common in physicians who perform ablation the most. Our data show that there is considerable variability in the use of EVTA in Medicare beneficiaries, and that outlier physicians performing a high number of venous ablation procedures per patient are identifiable using a peer-benchmarked practice pattern measure via claims-based data.

Short-form 6D assessment in compression module of the American College of Phlebology Patient Reported Outcome Venous Registry.

Objective The goal of this American College of Phlebology Patient Reported Outcome Venous Registry analysis was to examine the clinical efficacy of compression stockings using short-form 6D questionnaire (SF-6D). Method SF-6D scores were modeled over time using linear mixed effects model. Changes of SF-6D score from baseline to the last encounter were examined using a paired t-test. Analysis of variance was used to compare changes from baseline in SF-6D scores between C classifications. All analyses were conducted using SAS software, version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary NC). Results Baseline mean SF-6D score was 0.83 and at follow-up, 0.85. Mean SF-6D change was +0.02 points (P = .001) over an average time period of 5.5 months. Patients' SF-6D scores were estimated to increase by +0.03 points (P = .005) per year of usage of compression stockings. SF-6D score changes across C classifications did not demonstrate significant differences (P = .265). Conclusion There was an improvement of SF-6D score in the registry participants who used circular knit compression stockings.

The evidence supporting treatment of reflux and obstruction in chronic venous disease.

On July 20, 2016, a Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee panel convened to assess the evidence supporting treatment of chronic venous disease. Several societies addressed the questions posed to the panel. A multidisciplinary coalition, representing nine societies of venous specialists, reviewed the literature and presented a consensus opinion regarding the panel questions. The purpose of this paper is to present our coalition's consensus review of the literature and recommendations for chronic venous disease.