Tag: Home Oxygen

WASHINGTON - The Council for Quality Respiratory Care is celebrating National Respiratory Care Week, Oct. 26-31, by promoting H.R. 8158, a bill that would eliminate the budget neutrality requirement for home oxygen services, supplies and equipment. The annual event, sponsored by the American Association for Respiratory Care, recognizes the critical role that respiratory therapists play in promoting patient health. The CQRC commends RTs for their efforts to ensure continued access to care, even as...

WASHINGTON - The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved new legislation that seeks to address unsustainable oxygen reimbursement for stationary oxygen products, including oxygen concentrators, furnished in rural areas.Introduced Friday by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, H.R. 8158 would amend both the Social Security Act and the 1997 Balanced Budget Act to waive the budget neutrality offset for stationary oxygen products. CMS began applying the...

YARMOUTH, Maine - In the early days of the public health emergency, HME providers were focused on taking on discharged patients as hospitals made way for COVID-19 patients. Now, they're caring for COVID-19 patients themselves.“About 80% of the COVID patients are not sent to the hospital,” said Terry Racciato, president of RAC & Associates, DBA SpecialCare in San Diego. “We are actively seeing a number of patients in the home right now. They need oxygen, they need a BiPAP or CPAP,...

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Mike Marnhout, who has worked in home care since 1980, opened his first HME company in 1982, his parents took a second mortgage on their house and loaned him the money with one condition: that he would never turn anyone away, whether they could afford to pay or not.To this day (2020 marks 40 years in the industry), he's kept his word, said Marnhout, CEO of Bluegrass Oxygen.Founded in 1996, Bluegrass Oxygen accepts all insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, and offers home...

WASHINGTON - CMS recently updated its COVID-19 FAQ to include coverage for home oxygen for patients diagnosed with the disease.The agency is currently reviewing the NCDs and LCDs to determine if there are other regulatory barriers that can be removed during this emergency and will provide an update soon, AAHomecare reports.Other developments, according to the association:. Performant Recovery, the DMEPOS RAC, is following CMS's COVID-19 emergency guidance and holding off on new audits. Starting March...

WASHINGTON - CMS recently updated its COVID-19 FAQ to include coverage for home oxygen for patients diagnosed with the disease.The agency is currently reviewing the NCDs and LCDs to determine if there are other regulatory barriers that can be removed during this emergency and will provide an update soon, AAHomecare reports.Other developments, according to the association:Performant Recovery, the DMEPOS RAC, is following CMS's COVID-19 emergency guidance and holding off on new audits. Starting March...

LONDON - American oxygen users are twice as likely to die in a home oxygen fire than in Japan, and 20 times more likely than in England, according to a new study from BPR Medical, a medical gas designer manufacturer. The report identified 311 separate home oxygen fires over a 20-month period, resulting in 164 deaths, 71 serious injuries and 119 minor injuries. HME News spoke to Richard Radford, managing director, about how these fires start and what can stop them.HME News: Did anything about the...

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - 3B Medical is officially competing for POC business.The company, already established in the sleep therapy market, will start showing and taking orders for its 3B Aer, which weighs in at 4.5 pounds, in February, and plans to start shipping the POCs in March.“It is a competitive market—there will be at least nine manufacturers of POCs starting in February,” said Alex Lucio, CEO. “What does that do? The pricing becomes softer. These units were significantly...

NEW YORK - The majority of HME providers are reducing or delaying orders for oxygen and CPAP equipment, but that is likely to be temporary, according to a new survey for the fourth quarter of 2018 from Needham & Company.Sixty three percent of respondents said they would reduce or delay orders for oxygen equipment in response to an any willing provider provision set to go into effect Jan. 1 for Medicare, according to the survey of 150 providers.Respondents said they would also reduce or delay orders...

WASHINGTON - Reimbursement rates for stationary and portable oxygen concentrators fare quite differently in the 2019 fee schedule, according to an analysis by AAHomecare.The rural rate for stationary concentrators (E1390) will increase 10.9%, from $121.46 to $134.71, and the average regional rate will increase 4.4% from $69.31 to $72.32.The rural rate for POCs (E1392) will decrease 5.2% from $46.77 to $44.32, and the average regional rate will decrease 6.5%, from $38.10 to $35.64.Rates for portable...