By Vanessa Orr
NBC news recently reported that IV therapy—which delivers a high dose of mineral and vitamins directly into a person’s bloodstream—has become a $15 billion industry. This trend is attracting a lot of healthcare providers, including physicians, nurse practitioners (NP), physician assistants (PA), medi-spas and more.
While there are no federal regulations covering the administration of IV therapy, each state has their own rules that practitioners must follow.
“This is where things get a little fuzzy,” says Kyla Murphy, Professional Liability Advisor, National Healthcare Practice with Risk Strategies. “Depending on the state, there can be strict rules or not many rules at all. This is one of the reasons that both doctors and patients are calling for consistency across the board.”
In California, for example, 51 percent of a practice offering IV therapy must be owned by a medical corporation. In New York, a physician or physicians’ group must own 100 percent of the practice. In Florida, both physicians and non-physicians can administer IV therapy, but the practice must have a physician as its medical director.
“While these treatments can be very helpful and impactful to a patient’s health when given by a licensed professional, problems arise when they are administered by someone who is not licensed, or when the equipment is not sterilized properly,” says Kyla Murphy. “Problems can range from infections to skin deformities, and in some cases, even death.”
In Texas, for example, a woman recently died while being administered IV therapy.
“A lot of the problem goes back to compounding—just like with weight-loss drugs, compounding is being done in IV therapy as well,” said Tom Murphy, SVP National Healthcare Practice, Risk Strategies. “People are mixing different medications and vitamins.
“This is why it’s important for each provider to get regulatory guidance from the Department of Health or their board of medicine before offering these services to avoid potential legal or insurance-related exposures,” he added.
In many cases, it is not physicians administering the therapy, but NPs, PA, and aestheticians. While they should be receiving guidance from the facility’s medical director, this does not always occur. Providers should also be doing good faith exams, just as they would with any other patient.
“They need to check a person’s medical history, make sure that the equipment is being sterilized properly, and also make sure that they are in compliance with the requirements of the state where they are practicing,” said Kyla Murphy.
“There is not a one-size-fits-all solution,” she added. “Every person’s body reacts differently. A 350-pound man and a 110-pound woman should not receive the same vitamin intake. Providers and patients alike need to call for consistency to make sure that what they are doing is safe.”
She notes that patients should also ask questions before receiving any treatment, including whether a licensed provider is administering the IV; whether they are qualified to be offering this treatment, and who owns the practice.
Practitioners should make sure that they are compliant with state laws as well as with their insurance coverage. “IV therapy doesn’t have the exposure or risk that some treatments do, such as weight-loss drugs, and we haven’t seen the types of claims that we have with other procedures,” said Tom Murphy. “In the professional liability world, there are still a lot of options for coverage, with carriers asking pretty standard things about compliance. However, if a facility is doing other treatments besides IV therapy, that may be a different story.”
To date, Florida has not seen any lawsuits as a result of IV therapy, though there have been some claims as a result of patients getting infections after IV treatment because it was not administered properly. But as this area of medicine continues to grow, that may soon change.
“I hear from many of these clinics every week wanting to do IV therapy,” says Tom Murphy. “To this end, we have joined the American IV Association (AIVA), a national association designed to help everyone get into compliance. It’s important to make sure that people get the education they need, and that the medical providers are doing what they need and have the proper training and tools to maintain patient safety.”
For more information, contact Kyla Murphy at Kyla.murphy@risk-strategies.com or Tom Murphy at tmurphy@risk-strategies.com or call 800-966-2120.
