According to
Spiegel, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved this
therapy for only 14 clinical conditions, including the treatment of
external diabetic ulcers and internal radiation wounds. These 14
treatment categories appear to have been arbitrarily set more than
40 years ago.
Without FDA approval, however, insurance companies cannot cover the
cost of this treatment, nor can hospitals provide treatment, even
for those who can pay. Instead, only free-standing clinics are
legally permitted to treat for "off-list" conditions such as CRPS.
Formal clinical studies are required for this scenario to change, a
cost prohibitive proposition thus far.
While insurance is unlikely to cover the cost of these treatments
for the time being, Spiegel feels HBOT therapy is still "very, very
cost effective" in the long term. Session lengths average 1-1/2 to 2
hours for individuals with CRPS, with costs around $150 to $250 per
session.
For example, if ordinary pain management therapies like injections
and narcotics don't help CRPS patients, then surgical procedures may
be necessary, he says. One of these is a morphine pump, which costs
upwards of $20,000 just to install. "It needs to be monitored
monthly by a physician and replaced every four or five years, with
all the associated costs for doctor visits along the way." Most
free-standing centers, however, provide HBOT for thousands of
dollars less than hospital-based centers.
Spiegel and others are doing what they can to get the FDA and other
groups to re-evaluate the current limitations on approved diagnoses
to treat with HBOT. This past summer, for example, he gave a talk at
the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical Society annual meeting. The talk
raised considerable interest. Currently, two clinical trials are
underway at the National Institutes of Health involving HBOT, but
neither involve people with CRPS.
Uruguay,
Montevideo
Lichtenstein, Vaduz
Cape Coral, Florida
Visalia, California
Fremont, California
Caloundra, Queensland
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Bosnia, Sarajevo
Zimbabwe, Hararesssss
United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi
//www.balancedhealthtoday.com/products.html
Chambers
To Choose From
Click on the Picture to Go To the
Detailed Page
Free Shipping on all chambers w/in the USA