Tag: Home oxygen therapy

WASHINGTON – CMS is accepting comments on a proposal to amend the period of initial coverage for certain home oxygen patients from 120 days to 90 days to align with the 90-day statutory time period set out in the national coverage determination issued Sept. 27, 2021.  In a decision memo, CMS stated: “We are proposing that the first paragraph of section D will state: Effective [XX, XXXX], the MAC may determine reasonable and necessary coverage of oxygen therapy and oxygen equipment...

WASHINGTON – Industry stakeholders are trying to guide what a post-PHE world for home oxygen therapy and other product categories might look like.  AAHomecare recently discussed with CMS a one-page recommended reference document for Medicare audit contractors reviewing claims for dates of service during and after the PHE. The document is a cheat sheet of sorts for the waivers that have been in place during the PHE that don’t require, for example, medical documentation or a signature.  “It...

WASHINGTON – CMS’s plan to discontinue CMNs on Jan. 1, 2023, may cause problems for HME providers trying to comply with a new national coverage determination for home oxygen therapy that went into effect Sept. 27, say industry stakeholders.   Following the release of the NCD, CMS issued change requests to push new language to the decision manual and to trigger claims processing edits to align with the new guidelines, but nothing related to eliminating the CMN for oxygen specifically....

DENVER – ARYA BioMed Corp. has entered the home oxygen therapy market with a portable oxygen concentrator. The company says its POC weighs only five pounds with an eight-cell battery and only six pounds with a 16-cell battery. It features pulse-flow settings ranging from 1-5, a battery life of up to eight hours with the standard eight-cell battery pack, a sensitive breath detection, an auto-dose safety feature and more. It has also been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for...

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 MACs...

WAUSAU, Wis. – Aspirus Home Medical Equipment has seen a steep increase in patients requiring home oxygen therapy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The company has reported the number of new oxygen patients spiked to 172 in January of this year compared to about 40 new patients per month earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic and about 20 per month prior to the pandemic.  “Pre-pandemic to today, we’re seeing nine times greater utilization of our oxygen concentrators,”...

ST. LOUIS – Responsive Respiratory, Inc. has released its latest product solutions catalog, this year highlighting its newest entry into the sleep market, the Purify O3 Elite Sanitizer. “We’ve expanded our offering with the Purify O3 Elite – a small, easy to use sanitizing device for PAP accessories,” said Tom Bannon, president. “This addition complements the first-generation Purify O3 sanitizer, now a staple accessory for sleep patients.” The catalog is...

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...

YARMOUTH, Maine – Outdated, redundant and confusing is the common refrain from HME Newspoll respondents who overwhelmingly support CMS’s decision to eliminate the CMN requirement for home oxygen therapy.  “The CMN is an outdated tool that simply seems to supply Medicare with another means to deny claims on technicalities,” wrote Josh Turner, billing manager at McAbee Medical in Decatur, Ala. “Everything on the CMN is in the medical record, so there is no reason...

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...