Observations on 2026 Skin Substitute Use Across the Continuum
Key Takeaways
- CTPs/skin substitutes (US, long-term care → wound centers): Reduced use in long-term care; patients with prepared wound beds are transported to wound centers for ~4 consecutive weeks to meet CMS requirements before application.
- Care-setting shifts: Private offices increasingly partner with wound centers; some providers move applications to outpatient surgery settings; patterns driven by financial and operational constraints.
- Access impact: Mobile wound care providers are scaling back or exiting, potentially reducing home-based care access; evolving practice patterns require ongoing outcomes data collection.
Transcript
Please note: This content is a direct transcript, capturing the authentic conversation without edits. Some language may reflect the flow of live discussion rather than polished text.
A lot of people ask me, what do you see in your space with regard to CTPs? Now, I practice across the continuum, so I see a lot of different things. For example, in the long-term care space, I am seeing people pulling back on the application of CTPs. Right now, they're a little hesitant, but what we're also seeing is that if they have a connection to the wound center, what they'll do is if the wound bed is well prepared, they will have them transported over to the wound center. Then, they will see the patient there for four weeks in a row to meet the CMS requirements and then apply skin subs. So that timing has to be carefully orchestrated because there are financial implications to the long-term care facility. Wound care in the private office space, I see some of physicians are trying to connect with the wound centers because they know their patients need CTPs.
And so, they want to be able to have that offered without having a lot of repercussions and financial and time strain based on their own private office. So you're starting to see more connections there. We also start to see more of the office-based people going to the outpatient surgery to apply these products. And so it'll be very interesting to watch the outcomes because people have changed. The other thing I'm also seeing is that some mobile providers are either shifting their practice patterns or they are no longer, or they're scaling back and not in business anymore. And that will be an interesting space to watch too, because there are a lot of people without any access to good wound care in the home setting. So all this really means is that we have a lot of data to collect about the outcomes in regards to the impact of regulation.
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