Skin substitutes: Why wound care payments ‘raise major concerns about fraud, waste and abuse’

Medicare spending has spiked in recent years to pay for wound care and treatments using skin substitutes. In September 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) published “Medicare Part B Payment Trends for Skin Substitutes Raise Major Concerns about Fraud, Waste and Abuse.” The analysis examined how and why skin substitutes rose to become a $10 billion expenditure for Medicare in 2024. There has been more use and higher prices for the treatments — and quite possibly medical fraud. In this video series, David Tawes, MA, regional inspector general in the Baltimore, Maryland, HHS-OIG Office of Evaluation and Inspections, explains the findings about skin substitutes and why they can become problematic. HHS-OIG stated: “Skin subsitutes seem particularly vulnerable to questionable billing and fraud schemes.”