Tag: Council for Quality Respiratory Care

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 – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care in a statement today encouraged CMS to reconsider eliminating the CMN for home oxygen therapy.  The CQRC, a coalition of the nation’s largest respiratory providers and manufacturers, says doing that would replace “objective testing ordered by a patient’s physician for the subjective decision-making of Medicare contractors.”  “We are highly supportive of allowing acute patients to receive oxygen...

WASHINGTON – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care in a statement today encouraged CMS to reconsider eliminating the CMN for home oxygen therapy. The CQRC, a coalition of the nation’s largest respiratory providers and manufacturers, says doing that would replace “objective testing ordered by a patient’s physician for the subjective decision-making of Medicare contractors.” “We are highly supportive of allowing acute patients to receive oxygen therapy outside...

Being the recipient of Google Alerts for “oxygen concentrator” is a scary and sad place to be right now.  I have these alerts set up for a number of key terms in the HME industry – think “sleep therapy” and “home infusion” and “AdaptHealth” and “Invacare.” They’re delivered to my email inbox every afternoon.  Recent alerts for “oxygen concentrator” have been almost exclusively related to...

WASHINGTON – Home respiratory care providers have played a crucial role amid the ongoing public health emergency and lawmakers should support policies that ensure long-term reimbursement stability in the market, the Council for Quality Respiratory Care stated in testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.  The CQRC submitted the testimony as part of a recent hearing on “The Long Haul: Forging a Path Through...

WASHINGTON – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care has partnered with AAHomecare and the VGM Group to send a one-page letter to CMS urging the agency to finalize the DMEPOS final rule as quickly as possible.  A proposed rule published in October outlined the agency’s plans to make permanent the 50-50 blended reimbursement rates in rural areas.  “In light of the pandemic, it is more important than ever that the Medicare...

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 recognizes November as National COPD Awareness Month by commending CMS for its plans not to award competitive bidding contracts to 13 product categories, including oxygen supplies and equipment, in 2021. If finalized, the proposal would ensure that patients will be able to continue accessing oxygen supplies and equipment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the CQRC says. “We applaud CMS for properly addressing policies that could have threatened...

WASHINGTON - The Council for Quality Respiratory Care commended the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for passing H.R. 8158, a bill that would amend both the Social Security Act and the 1997 Balanced Budget Act to waive the budget neutrality offset for stationary oxygen products. “The continued application of the budget neutrality provision has led to troublingly low rates for oxygen supplies and equipment in rural and suburban areas, which if not addressed, threatens to force some suppliers...