What is the Hydrostat and why does Don sell it to so many physicians of so many specialties?
More than 15% of patients presenting to primary care offices suffer from one of the following symptoms or diagnosis
IBS - diarrhea predominant
Abdominal Pain or Bloating
Indigestion or GERD
Abdominal Distention
Diarrhea
Flatulence
So - what do you do about it in your own practice? What would you want your doctor to do if YOU presented with it?
Instead of sending the patient to a gastroenterologist for an expensive and intrusive scope, why not utilize the technology that is available today that costs you less than $4.20 per test in your office that reimburses more than $80 and HELP the patient?
No - I'm NOT talking about H Pylori . That test is TOO limited because it is simply looking for the Helicobacter pylori infection and that is ALL it looks for. It isn't going to help you if the problem is:
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
Fructose intolerance
Lactase Deficiency
A simple hand held Breath Hydrogen testing device, also called Hydrostat, used by your nursing staff or M.A., can help you determine if the problem is something that can be treated in your office (such as SIBO, Fructose or Lactase) or whether the patient needs an expensive and intrusive colonoscopy or worse.
Why put the patients through scopes when they may not be needed or indicated? If you were the patient, wouldn't YOU want a simple breath hydrogen test instead?
The hydrogen breath test uses the measurement of hydrogen in the breath to diagnose several conditions that cause gastrointestinal symptoms. In humans, only anaerobic bacteria in the colon are capable of producing hydrogen. The bacteria produce hydrogen mainly when they are exposed to undigested sugars and carbohydrates. Although limited hydrogen is produced from the small amounts of unabsorbed food that normally reach the colon, large amounts of hydrogen may be produced when there is a problem with the digestion or absorption of food in the small intestine that allows more unabsorbed food to reach the colon. Large amounts of hydrogen also may be produced when the colonic bacteria move back into the small intestine, a condition called bacterial overgrowth of the small bowel. In this latter instance, the bacteria are exposed to unabsorbed food that has not had a chance to completely traverse the small intestine to be fully digested and absorbed. Some of the hydrogen produced by the bacteria is absorbed into the blood flowing through the wall of the small intestine and colon. The hydrogen-containing blood travels to the lungs where the hydrogen is released and exhaled in the breath where it can be measured.
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THIS IS WHAT DOCTORS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE TEST
"I want to give you a little feedback on the breath hydrogen unit you placed in my practice earlier this year. This has been a great piece of equipment. From the financial aspect it is relatively inexpensive, not expensive to run and good reimbursement. Bloating and heartburn patients are plentiful in my practice and it is amazing to see patients who have had CT scans, ultrasounds, EGD's along with the GI consultation and still they are miserable and told to live with it. A simple test with the breath hydrogen and you identify the underlying problem, usually meaning a short course of antibiotics or more likely avoidance of certain foods. Patients come back crying with joy and relief that they finally have their problem solved(their spouses are even more happy!) I have had multiple scenarios played out in my office and when it comes to the bloating/burping indigestion patient, I have not found a patient yet that we could not solve their problem. If anyone treats these Patients I strongly recommend this unit as it is very cost-effective and you will have patients that think you are a genius for solving their problem…Orrin McLeod D.O., McLeod Medical Centers, New Mexico - January 2012 -
This makes the 2nd letter I have received from a doctor about the Hydrostat. Here is a portion of another one from Tasha Wallace, DO in Lehigh Acres, Florida:
"Most recently I have used the breath hydrogen test to diagnose malabsorption syndromes in patients with symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal pain, gas and bloating. A patient of mine had been suffering with "IBS" for 10 years. We found she was intolerant to fructose. She was eating a granola bar and yogurt every morning both of which had fructose added to them. She changed the brands she was buying and now she is symptom free. She even did her own research on fructose intolerance and bought 3 books for me to share with my other patients. She had tears in her eyes and thanked me many times for helping her."
REIMBURSEMENT
The unit costs less than $4,000 and the consumable cost per test is about $4.20. The CPT code 91065 does not have a limiting diagnosis in any state and the average Medicare allowed amount is $90.46. It takes your staff about 4 ½ minutes on average per patient test and some patients will need only one challenge while others may need as many as three before you determine the cause of the problem. $90.46 per challenge is a pretty good reimbursement.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact Don Self at 903 372-7529, and let him spend 15 minutes on a phone/internet Go-To-Meeting call with you running a pro forma. A typical solo practice primary care office only testing 2 patients a day should net $3,829 a month or $45,949 a year on this test. It takes less than 1 patient a month to break even on the investment and at 2 tests per day, you're looking at an annual ROI of 1150% and a 0.09 years (less than 1 ½ months) to full payback on investment.
IT HELPS PATIENTS!
The J Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2010 January covered a study performed in 2009 on 450 patients. The GLucose hydrogen breath tests (GHBTs) were given to 450 consecutive patients:
200 with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) who were taking PPIs (median 36 months)
200 with the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) who had not taken PPIs for at least 3 years,
and 50 healthy controls.
The GHBT was used as an indirect, surrogate test for SIBO, and all patients completed a gastrointestinal symptom score evaluation. The IBS patients were also classified as:
diarrhea (40%)
constipation (40%)
mixed (20%) subtypes
Overall, SIBO was suggested by a positive result on GHBT in
50% of patients receiving PPIs,
24.5% ofpatients with IBS, and
6% of controls.
These differences were statistically significant:
PPI vs IBS (odds ratio [OR], 3.14; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.06-4.80),
PPI vs control (OR, 16.0; 95% CI, 4.8-53.0),
IBS vs control (OR, 6.12; 95% CI, 3.8-7.5).
The prevalence of SIBO was similar in all age groups except one -- 41- to 60-year-olds, in which SIBO was more frequent in the PPI users (P < 0.01). Prevalence of SIBO was higher in patients who had 1 year of treatment withPPIs than in those who had <1 year (OR, 11; 95% CI, 5.5-21.8).
Rifaximin 400 mg 3 times daily for 14 days was given as an open-label treatment.
Eradication was achieved in 87% of the PPI group and in 91% of the IBS group (P = NS). There was no apparent difference in the success of eradication andlength of use of PPIs. Following eradication, absence was reported for:
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