AAGSV Study Published from AVLS PRO Venous Registry
Good Morning Everybody,
We are three and a half weeks into this COVID-19 crisis, and I know everybody is doing their best to make ends meet and help those patients in need. We’re at least seeing patients with blood clots and leg ulcers in our practice, and we're doing our best to minimize exposures, etc. Some of the PPE stuff is standard, and I’m not wearing a mask right now, but every other time that I'm in the office I'm pretty much wearing a mask.
I wanted to share some great news! For eight years, we've been battling the absence of anterior accessory great saphenous vein recognition by the majority of commercial payers. Anthem fell in December after pressure last year with a volume of literature that shows that this is a common pattern both in primary patients as well as those with a progressive disease that have had a prior GSP ablation for instance and have new reflux.
Right here is a manuscript, “The clinical relevance of anterior accessory great saphenous vein reflux.” This is a registry project. It is available right now at the Journal of Vascular Surgery – Venous and Lymphatic Disorders.
I won't go into the high points of this article. It is an important article, and it does show that this is not merely a branch varix. It is something that without registry support, in other words, this project came entirely out of the ACP PRO legacy data. This is the data that we started with. This is an important paper and is one of the reasons why we have a registry. This registry started as we had pressures on our specialty. We needed to start showing that there's more to this than just the great saphenous and the small saphenous. If you're struggling with coverage in your neighborhood, which again this occurs in 10-15% of patients that you see with superficial venous incompetence, my hope is that you'll find this article is helpful as you do your pre-authorizations requesting coverage for these patients.
In parting, if your schedule is full, you’re blessed. If your schedule is not full, that means you’ve got some extra time. If you've ever thought about participating in a registry and showing the work that you do that's good for your patients is actually able to be good for everyone, I want you to think about what you can do. Talk to your vendor, that is your EMR vendor, on how you can potentially participate in the registry. It is not cost prohibitive. This is something that is very important and is something that may be mandated down the road. But the good news today is that the registry is churning out meaningful research, and we're going to be able to put a face on the patients that we see and try to protect access to care for these patients.
Listen, stay safe. Stay healthy. Be a presence in your community. Maintain relevancy, and the bottom line is we'll see you on the other side. Godspeed.
