NORTHRIDGE — Mike Potter was scared and in tears after learning that an infection in his left toe might cost him his leg. So he went to the hyperbaric medicine department at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for a second opinion.
A doctor told Potter, a diabetic, that his ruptured toe blister could be treated with a combination of antibiotics and the hyperbaric chamber, which suffuses non-healing wounds with concentrated oxygen. Potter's toe was eventually amputated, but the infection, a common ailment among diabetics, was halted and his leg was saved.
"I wouldn't be walking around if it wasn't for the hyperbaric chamber," said Potter, a 56-year-old retired airline pilot who lives in Mojave. "I can't tell you the number of people they have saved."
But the Northridge hospital's hyperbaric medicine department will stop saving life and limb after today. The 15-year-old program, which has treated about 3,000 patients and was once the largest in the Western U.S., will shut down because Medicare has cut reimbursements for hyperbaric outpatients, hospital officials said.
Medicare is switching from a "cost-based" approach for outpatient payments, which is more open-ended, to paying fixed rates for services, federal officials said.
"This was a better way to pay for the services," said Dr. Laurie Feinberg, a medical officer with the federal Health Care Financing Administration, which oversees Medicare. "This was to create proper incentives for efficiency."
Starting Tuesday, Medicare will pay hospitals about $320 for every two-hour hyperbaric chamber treatment, representing a 33% cut in current rates, hyperbaric medicine experts said.
It costs Northridge Hospital Medical Center about $800 to deliver one treatment, said spokeswoman Andrea Bogdan, adding that the hospital cannot maintain the service even by reducing hours and staff.
"We can't afford that kind of loss. No hospital can," Bogdan said. "There's no way to reduce costs without compromising patient care and patient safety."
Although Medicare cuts will hurt, industry experts and former Northridge staff members say the hospital decided to close the program as part of a wide range of cost-cutting measures that could affect other services.
Program Reached Beyond Valley
Northridge was purchased in 1998 by Catholic Healthcare West of Southern California, a nonprofit company that owns 13 hospitals, three in the Valley.
