Health
Medicare Bleeds Billions on Pricey Bandages, and Doctors Get a Cut
Companies can set such high prices because of a quirk in Medicare pricing rules, industry experts said. For the first six months of a new bandage product’s life, Medicare will set the reimbursement rate at whatever price a company chooses. After that, the agency adjusts the reimbursement to reflect the actual price paid by doctors after any discounts.
To circumvent the reimbursement drop, some companies simply roll out new products.
In April 2023, Medicare began reimbursing $6,497 for every square inch of a bandage called Zenith, sold by Legacy Medical Consultants, a company in Fort Worth, Texas. Six months later, Zenith’s reimbursement fell to $2,746.
That month, October 2023, Medicare began reimbursing $6,490 for a new Legacy product, a “dual layer” bandage called Impax.
Marketing materials for the two products use identical photographs and similar language. The company describes both products as providing “optimal wound covering and protection during the treatment of wounds.”
Since 2022, spending on Zenith and Impax has exceeded $2.6 billion, according to Early Read’s analysis.
Legacy Medical Consultants did not answer questions about the marketing and pricing of those products. “Legacy is following the law, not taking advantage of the system,” Dan Childs, a company spokesman, said in a statement.
Doctor Discounts
A cottage industry of doctors and nurses make house calls to treat wounds. Some skin substitute companies pitch themselves to wound care doctors by offering a cut of the rising bandage prices.
Dr. Caroline Fife, a wound care doctor from Texas who often writes about industry excesses, shared on her blog last year an email she received from an undisclosed skin substitute company. The company boasted that other doctors had developed “a healthy revenue stream” from its bandages and that a patch smaller than a credit card “would generate a little over $20,000 for your practice.”
Some companies offer doctors a “bulk discount” of up to 45 percent, according to doctor interviews and contracts reviewed by The Times. But doctors then collect a Medicare reimbursement for the full price of the product.
Anti-kickback laws prohibit doctors from receiving financial rewards from drug companies or medical suppliers. And although Medicare does allow bulk discounts, experts said that the bandage rebates could have violated federal law because they didn’t actually require high-volume purchases. In some Legacy contracts reviewed by The Times, doctors had to buy only three products to qualify for a 40 or 45 percent discount.
“That is not a volume discount,” said Reuben Guttman, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who has represented many Medicare whistle-blowers. Mr. Guttman said that such labeling could be used to conceal a kickback.
In 2024, at least nine medical practices billed Medicare more than $50 million for skin substitutes, according to an analysis done for The Times by the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations, which represents medical groups that are incentivized to curb Medicare spending.
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As colorectal cancer (CRC) is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50, a new report reveals some surprising shifts in the incidence of the disease.
Although rates of CRC have been declining among seniors, those 65 and under are facing a rise in diagnoses, according to a report titled Colorectal Cancer Statistics, 2026, from the American Cancer Society.
Adults 65 and younger comprise nearly half (45%) of all new colorectal cancer cases — a significant increase from 27% in 1995, states the report, which was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The disease is rising fastest among adults 20 to 49 years old, at a rate of 3% per year.
Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50. (iStock)
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. Although that age group is eligible to receive routine screenings, just 37% do so.
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The report also revealed that rectal cancer is on the rise, now accounting for about one-third (32%) of all CRC cases — an increase from 27% in the mid-2000s.
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“After decades of progress, the risk of dying from colorectal cancer is climbing in younger generations of men and women, confirming a real uptick in disease because of something we’re doing or some other exposure,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report, in a press release.
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. (iStock)
“We need to redouble research efforts to understand the cause, but also circumvent deaths through earlier detection by educating clinicians and the general public about symptoms and increasing screening in people 45-54 years.”
It is projected that 158,850 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed this year, and that the disease will cause 55,230 deaths, per the report.
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More than half of CRC cases can be linked to high-risk behaviors, the researchers said. Those include lack of nutrition, high alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity.
“These findings further underscore that colorectal cancer is worsening among younger generations and highlight the immediate need for eligible adults to begin screening at the recommended age of 45,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society.
When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%. (iStock)
“The report also shines a light on the crucial importance of continued funding for research to help discover new therapies to treat the disease and advance patient care.”
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When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%, the report stated.
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A new study suggests that middle-aged men may be more vulnerable to faster biological aging, potentially linked to exposure to “forever chemicals.”
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging, examined how perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as PFAS, could impact aging at the cellular level.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals commonly used in nonstick cookware, food packaging, water-resistant fabrics and other consumer products, the study noted.
Their chemical structure makes them highly resistant to breaking down, allowing them to accumulate in water, soil and the human body.
Chinese researchers analyzed blood samples from 326 adults enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2000.
A new study suggests that middle-aged men could face accelerated biological aging at the cellular level due to exposure to PFAS. (iStock)
The researchers measured levels of 11 PFAS compounds in participants’ blood and used DNA-based “epigenetic clocks” — tools that analyze chemical changes to DNA to estimate biological age — to determine how quickly their bodies were aging at the cellular level, the study stated.
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Two compounds, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), were detected in 95% of participants.
Higher concentrations of those chemicals were associated with faster biological aging in men of certain age groups, but not in women.
“People should not panic.”
The compounds most strongly linked to accelerated aging were not the PFAS chemicals that typically receive the most public attention, the researchers noted.
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“The associations were strongest in adults aged 50 to 64, particularly in men,” Dr. Xiangwei Li, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the study’s corresponding author, told Fox News Digital.
“While this does not establish that PFAS cause aging, it suggests that these widely present ‘forever chemicals’ may be linked to molecular changes related to long-term health and aging.”
The study found that two of the compounds were detected in 95% of participants, and higher levels were linked to faster biological aging in men ages 50–64. (iStock)
Midlife may represent a more sensitive biological period, when the body becomes more vulnerable to age-related stressors, according to the researchers.
Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, may influence biological aging markers, potentially increasing vulnerability to environmental pollutants.
While Li said “people should not panic,” she does recommend looking for reasonable ways to reduce exposure.
That might mean checking local drinking water reports, using certified water filters designed to reduce PFAS, and limiting the use of stain- or grease-resistant products when alternatives are available.
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Meaningful reductions in PFAS exposure will likely depend on broader regulatory action and environmental cleanup efforts, Li added.
The researchers noted that midlife could be a particularly sensitive stage, when the body is more susceptible to stressors associated with aging. (iStock)
Study limitations
The researchers outlined several important limitations of the research, including that the findings show an association, but do not prove that PFAS directly causes accelerated aging.
“The study is cross-sectional, meaning exposure and aging markers were measured at the same time, so we cannot determine causality,” Li told Fox News Digital.
The study was also relatively small, limited to 326 adults age 50 or older, which means the findings may not apply to younger people or broader populations.
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Researchers measured PFAS levels using data collected between 1999 and 2000, and today’s exposure patterns may differ.
Li added that while PFAS is known to persist in the environment and the body, these results should be validated through larger, more recent studies that follow participants over time.
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