Tag: Crispin Teufel

WASHINGTON – With local coverage determinations for home oxygen therapy anticipated in October, Crispin Teufel, chair of the Council for Quality Respiratory Care, hopes the industry will get more clarity on a post-CMN environment.   The CMS requirement for CMNs is set to expire Jan. 1, 2023, and the industry has been pushing for a simple template with clear and objective clinical elements, says Teufel, who is also the CEO of Lincare.  “There’s not a lot of time,...

WASHINGTON – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care applauded the 22 bipartisan House lawmakers for urging the CMS to protect patients’ access to home oxygen. In a letter, spearheaded by Reps. Terri Sewell, D.-Ala., and Larry Bucshon, R.-Ind., to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, they wrote in support of reforms to the home oxygen therapy benefit, and asked the agency to ensure that Medicare contractor documentation...

WASHINGTON – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care has made it a priority to find out what happens when the waivers expire that have simplified the process for qualifying a patient for home oxygen therapy during the public health emergency.  “We’ve had several conversations internally and with CMS, but there is a big issue looming if CMS doesn’t act on what’s going to happen post-pandemic with all those patients,” said Crispin Teufel, chairman of the...

WASHINGTON – A coalition of respiratory stakeholders, including the Council for Quality Respiratory Care, are again asking CMS to ensure that objective standards for prescribing home oxygen therapy are put in place to prevent payment issues for HME providers and access issues for patients.  In an Oct. 4 letter, the CQRC and 11 other organizations, including AAHomecare and VGM & Associates, asked CMS to eliminate...

WASHINGTON - Dropping the CMN requirement for home oxygen without ensuring there are objective measures in place to support the need for therapy could expose providers to claim denials and put patient access at risk, says Crispin Teufel, chairman of the Council for Quality Respiratory Care.  “We appreciate the expansion of oxygen coverage, but at the same time, some things worry us, like the subjectivity to which providers are subjected to by contractors and judgment calls,” he...

WASHINGTON – As home respiratory providers look past the current public health emergency, they need to have the flexibility and stability to continue caring for patients, says Crispin Teufel, chairman of the Council for Quality Respiratory Care.  “We’ve started to have initial discussions on what happens when this is over,” said Teufel, who is also CEO of Lincare. “If you have set up a patient with COVID, do they need to get...

WASHINGTON – CMS’s competitive bidding program set the stage for a number of the difficulties that the HME industry is seeing as it tries to meet increased demand for oxygen therapy for COVID-19 patients, say the leaders of Apria Healthcare and Lincare and the Council of Quality Respiratory Care.  The agency may have dropped oxygen from Round 2021, its latest round of bidding, but 10 years since the program’s...

WASHINGTON - The Council for Quality Respiratory Care has named Crispin Teufel as chairman of the board. Teufel, CEO of Lincare, succeeds Dan Starck. “I am honored and humbled to serve as the next chairman of the CQRC,” said Teufel. “As we navigate the unprecedented challenges imposed by COVID-19, I look forward to working collaboratively with my industry colleagues to continue delivering high-quality care to patients both during the pandemic and beyond.” The CQRC is a coalition...