Tag: Home Oxygen
CQRC hails oxygen letter
August 18, 2022HME News Staff
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...
Dear Colleague letter seeks oxygen template
July 20, 2022HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – Reps. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., have released a Dear Colleague letter asking CMS to adopt a clear, easy to understand template letter for home oxygen equipment and supplies that asks for specific, standardized information to ensure patient needs are met.
CMS in July 2021 issued a proposed national coverage determination for home oxygen therapy that removes the CMN requirement, but industry stakeholders believe the agency needs to determine...
In brief: Regulatory update, e-prescribing report, Lincare acquisition
February 18, 2022HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – CMS on Feb. 10 published a change request notifying the DME Medicare Administrative Contractors of the agency’s new national coverage determination for home oxygen therapy.
CMS notes the following changes are effective for claims with dates of service starting Sept. 27, 2021:
expansion of oxygen coverage for acute and chronic conditions;
expansion of coverage for short and long-term need (when hypoxemia exhibited);
the ability of the...
In brief: Medline’s growth, ACMESA meeting, oxygen utilization
February 11, 2022HME News Staff
NORTHFIELD, Ill. – Medline opened five newly constructed distribution centers in 2021, with two more scheduled to be completed in 2022, as part of its $1.5 billion Healthcare Resilience Initiative.
The newest LEED-certified distribution center, set to open in the first quarter of 2022, is in Richmond Hill, Ga., less than 30 miles from the Port of Savannah. It will provide an additional 1.2 million square feet of space to stockpile supplies for customer distribution centers throughout...
Stark on oxygen NCD’s ripple effects, gaps
January 7, 2022Liz Beaulieu, Editor
YARMOUTH, Maine – Andrea Stark says the HME industry hasn’t experienced a coverage expansion like what’s in the new NCD for home oxygen therapy in recent history.
Stark, the head of reimbursement at MiraVista LLC, was a guest on a recent HME News in 10 podcast to talk about the ripple effects of the new NCD, which expands coverage to acute conditions and eliminates the CMN requirement, and how the DME MACs will interpret the new policy.
Caught by surprise
“CMS...
AAHomecare, CHEST launch Oxygen Toolkit
December 2, 2021HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – AAHomecare and the American College of Chest Physicians have released an Oxygen Toolkit to support oxygen users and clinicians.
“We’re excited to collaborate with the CHEST Foundation to educate patients with lung disease about oxygen therapy,” said Tom Ryan, AAHomecare president and CEO. “Better-informed patients and caregivers will allow suppliers to more effectively support individuals who depend on home oxygen. These new guides are a terrific...
Applied Home Healthcare announces new FDA drug reporting service
December 1, 2021HME News Staff
WESTLAKE, Ohio – Applied Home Healthcare Equipment, which offers oxygen filling, technical and regulatory support for HME providers, has launched a drug reporting service to help transfillers ensure they are meeting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new requirement to report the amount of medical oxygen filled and released to patients annually. “The new drug reporting service we’re offering takes the worry out of annual reporting for our transfillers,” said Jim...
Study looks at connection between electricity cost, health outcomes
October 27, 2021HME News Staff
YARMOUTH, Maine – Policymakers should consider the high costs of operating oxygen equipment and other DME, especially for low-income individuals who obtain equipment from the Medicare or Medicaid programs, according to a new study published in JAMA Network. Researchers obtained DME data from CMS for 2018 and annual electricity cost data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Electricity Data Browser for each state at residential delivery prices. Depending on the needs of the patient,...
Industry on home oxygen: We need ‘objective standards for review’
October 5, 2021HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – AAHomecare, VGM & Associates, the Council for Quality Respiratory Care and 11 other organizations are asking CMS to eliminate the medical record review for home oxygen therapy and to accept the clinician prescription/standard written order as the required documentation for establishing medical necessity.
These changes would protect against fraud and abuse, reduce the burden on clinicians and suppliers, and protect access for Medicare beneficiaries, the groups say in an...
CMS finalizes changes to home oxygen benefit
September 27, 2021HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – CMS has posted a final national coverage determination and decision memo on “Home Use of Oxygen and Home Oxygen Use to Treat Cluster Headaches.”
The agency says of its decision to stick with removing the CMN requirement for home oxygen:
“CMNs are claim attachment forms developed in the 1990s to augment medical review. At that time, the CMS DME claims systems had very limited editing capabilities and only basic information was included on the claim form....