Reimbursement for blood products 'inadequate'. (Medicare Payments).

WASHINGTON -- Medicare reimbursement for blood products is not adequate to encourage hospitals to use new technologies that ensure the safety of the blood supply, a fact that is especially troubling as new blood-borne diseases emerge, according to a new report.

Details of the report, which was conducted by The Lewin Group, a health care consulting firm, for the medical technology association AdvaMed, were released at a press briefing.

"Inadequate blood reimbursement is affecting my ability to offer the best and safest blood to my patients," Dr. Paul Ness, director of transfusion medicine for Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, said during the briefing.

Today's blood supply is safer than ever, the report noted. By the time a donor's blood reaches a patient, it has traveled through numerous tests, such as those for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, syphilis, and viruses that attack the nervous system.

Yet diseases that threaten the blood supply evolve over time, and new threats are always emerging, such as the human form of mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, variations of the herpes virus, new viruses linked to hepatitis, and now, potentially West Nile virus.

As these new threats emerge, so do new technologies, such as nucleic acid testing to detect the genetic material of HIV, and leukoreduction, which removes white blood cells that can cause post-transfusion complications.

The problem, the Lewin report said, is that Medicare's intricate, complex, and inadequate payment systems create a disincentive for already cash-strapped hospitals to adopt, improved blood safety products.