Tiger BioSciences: New National Wound Care Survey Signals Access Crisis Following 2026 CMS CAMPs Payment Change

A national clinician and practice survey links fixed CAMPs reimbursement to authorization delays, treatment denials, reduced capacity, and reported service-line/provider closures across community-based wound care settings. In short, CMS has abandoned Americans with chronic non-healing wounds.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A national clinician and practice survey¹ conducted by the Wound and Hyperbaric Association (WHA) reports widespread disruption across wound care delivery settings following the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 2026 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) update establishing a fixed reimbursement rate for cellular, acellular, and matrix-like products (CAMPs). The survey findings were published online in the Journal of Wound Care in the peer-reviewed article, "Early reported effects of the 2026 CMS Physician Fee Schedule on patient access to CAMPs in wound care," reporting results from a national clinician survey evaluating reported impacts of the 2026 CMS Physician Fee Schedule on access to CAMPs in wound care.²

Implemented January 1, 2026, the new CMS policy created an arbitrary standardized payment of approximately $127.14 per cm² for CAMPs, regardless of product type or regulatory classification. The survey findings confirm that the new policy is harming frontline wound care providers and their patients, namely, as a clinically consequential access constraint, particularly for non-facility, mobile, home-based, assisted living, skilled nursing, rural, and community-based care providers.

The Access Crisis Feedback Form was open from February 4, 2026, to April 14, 2026, and collected 130 responses from clinicians and wound care practices. Respondents represented 36 states collectively, reported caring for approximately 12,000 wound patients per week, and represented a comparative pool of 4,551 National Provider Identifiers (NPIs) that applied CAMPs in Medicare claims during 2024.

Key Findings: Operational Disruption Widely Reported
Respondents reported that reduced CAMP availability and reimbursement-related practice instability are contributing to delayed care, reduced access, and escalation of wound severity:

• 61% cited authorization delays for clinically eligible patients as a major concern.
• 58% reported reduced ability to deliver timely, advanced wound care and delayed treatment for homebound, rural, medically fragile, and functionally immobile patients.
• 53% reported increased denials despite patients meeting coverage criteria, with risk of worsening wound progression, increased need for higher-risk interventions, including surgical debridement and salvage procedures.
• 48% reported reduced outreach, staffing, or clinical capacity.
• 45.4% reported less access to care due to closures/planned closures of wound care practices. Also cited: reduced access to advanced wound care for clinically eligible patients.
• 85.4% cited personal narratives describing negative real-world effects of the CAMP access crisis, including infection, sepsis, limb loss, amputation, increased hospitalization, and death.
• 57% cited the CMS fixed fee per cm² reimbursement schedule for CAMPs as key to reported risk and negative patient impacts.

Potential Site-of-Care Equity Concern
According to the survey analysis, CMS' new rule places greater financial pressure on independent, mobile, home-based, and other non-facility wound care providers, raising significant concerns that the uniform CAMP product payment rate does not create true site-of-care neutrality. Hospital outpatient departments may receive a separate facility payment for CAMP application, while non-facility providers do not. For example, a CY 2026 national hospital outpatient facility payment of approximately $746.61 for APC 5053, which includes CPT 15271, separate from the CAMP reimbursement of approximately $127.14 per cm².

Conclusion
The WHA survey provides real world and concrete insights into how providers and their patients are being harmed by CMS through its 2026 PFS. The survey also demonstrates that CMS' current payment rate is an access constraint with non-uniform effects across sites of care, which destabilizes non-facility wound care models and, when care is even available for patients, the care shifts to higher-cost institutional settings.

Call for Policy Review
Responding providers and wound care organizations across diverse care settings and geographic regions are urging reevaluation of the current CMS reimbursement framework. They emphasize the need for timely policy refinements that preserve appropriate access to advanced wound therapies, such as CAMPs, while maintaining fiscal stewardship, program integrity, and equitable care delivery.

About the Study Sponsor – Tiger BioSciences
Tiger BioSciences, headquartered in Conshohocken, PA, is a vertically integrated tissue engineering company specializing in the recovery, processing, development, research, and distribution of cellular, acellular, and matrix-like products (CAMPs) and aesthetic technologies. The company conducts and sponsors clinical research and real-world evidence initiatives aimed at improving patient access, clinical outcomes, and healthcare system sustainability in advanced wound care.

References:

1. Wound and Hyperbaric Association. Patient Impact Survey: Share your experience. Wound and Hyperbaric Association. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.whacares.org/patient-impact-survey
2. Tettelbach WH, Armstrong D, Tucker T, et al. Early reported effects of the 2026 CMS Physician Fee Schedule on patient access to CAMPs in wound care: a national clinician and practice survey. J Wound Care. 2026;35(7). doi:10.12968/jowc.2026.0290.

SOURCE Tiger BioSciences