Tag: Council for Quality Respiratory Care

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden has announced that the public health emergency will end on May 11, 2023.  Under the last declaration in January, the PHE was set to end on April 11.  “The advance notice goes beyond HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s previous guidance to health care stakeholders that the agency would provide at least 60 days advance notice before ending the PHE,” AAHomecare noted in a bulletin.  Knowing when the PHE will end gives industry...

WASHINGTON – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care used a recent Request for Information from CMS to push for clear, objective clinical data elements for oxygen that are consistent with existing CMS-developed “templates” to ensure access to care for home respiratory patients.  In its comments on “Make Your Voice Heard: Promoting Efficiency and Equity Within CMS Programs, the CQRC also urges CMS to issue clear guidelines about what to expect after the COVID-19 public...

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 – Patient access to in-home respiratory care may be negatively impacted if a shortage in semiconductor chips is not addressed, warns the Council for Council for Quality Respiratory Care.  In a March 15 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, CQRC and nine other respiratory care stakeholders urge the administration to use its authority to help address the shortage of semiconductor chips used in home...

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 – The Council for Quality Respiratory Care is asking industry stakeholders to contact CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to standardize the paperwork requirements for home oxygen coverage.  The CQRC says requiring physicians to provide medical records could result in “the vast majority of claims being denied.”  “CMS has indicated that physicians will be required to provide their medical records instead of using a form with the information...

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...