Tag: Oxygen

WASHINGTON – Fourteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives have sent a letter to CMS urging the agency to clarify Medicare documentation requirements for supplemental oxygen and adopt a standardized template for documenting patient need, according to the Council for Quality Respiratory Care.  “We write to request that auditors accept the standard written order (SWO) as the only necessary documentation to establish medical necessity when auditing claims of patients who...

IRVINE, Calif. – Telesair has received CE (Conformité Européenne) Marks for its Bonhawa High Flow Oxygen Therapy (HFOT) system for use in the treatment of patients with respiratory insufficiency. The light and compact device features an extended flow range up to 80 L/pm, a simple disinfection process and an easy-to-use touchscreen, allowing greater therapeutic range, efficient disinfection, the potential to reduce the workload of caregivers, and the ability to visualize patient...

WASHINGTON – Industry stakeholders hope an upcoming pilot project by CMS will test the use of a standardized template for home oxygen therapy – something that would go a long way toward clearing up gray areas in coverage, they say.  CMS has a two year, nearly $4 million contract with Mettle Solutions, a health care information and technology solutions company, to launch the pilot and AAHomecare has scheduled a meeting with the company to learn more about it, says Kim Brummett,...

We’ve burned through the first half of 2023 already and what do we have to show for it?  If the most read stories from January through June are any indication, it’s disruption, innovation and growth.  Let’s start with disruption. It has come in a number of forms in 2023, including one of the HME industry’s legacy manufacturers, Invacare, filing for bankruptcy. We posted a story about that to our website in February, and it remains the most read story of the...

WASHINGTON – Reps. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Adrian Smith, R-Neb., are collecting signatures for a sign-on letter asking CMS to accept the standard written order as the only necessary documentation to establish medical necessity for audits of home oxygen, sleep and non-invasive ventilation claims submitted during the public health emergency, according to AAHomecare.  The letter asks CMS to protect patient access by instructing contractors to use CMS’s widely accepted...

WASHINGTON –– The Council for Quality Respiratory Care has expressed disappointment that the recently published local coverage determination for oxygen does not call for the use of a data-driven oxygen template when documenting medical need.   Instead, the LCD, released on Nov. 18, continues to rely on the use of patient medical records, which the CQRC says can be subjective and inconsistent and which can lead to a high rate of oxygen claim denials.  “It is concerning...

BALTIMORE – A new national coverage determination that eliminates the certificate of medical necessity requirement for home oxygen therapy provides an opening to revisit standardized clinical data elements, industry stakeholders say.  Through Aug. 3, stakeholders are urging members in the House of Representatives to sign on to a Dear League letter that asks CMS to adopt CDEs for home oxygen equipment and supplies.  “The industry has taken this opportunity to...

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...

BALTIMORE – With a new clarification from CMS and the DME MACs, it’s “crystal clear” that certificates of medical necessity are no longer required for oxygen claims during the public health emergency, say industry experts.  “The guidance is crystal clear and precise,” said Andrea Stark, a Medicare consultant and reimbursement specialist for MiraVista. “Providers have chased their last CMN for oxygen.”  CMS in June posted a joint...

WASHINGTON – CMS has posted a joint DME MAC publication clarifying that certificates of medical necessity are not required for oxygen claims during the public health emergency.  The publication also clarifies that DME Information Forms are not required for external infusion pumps during the PHE.  “CMS-1744-IFC (an interim final rule issued April 6, 2020) stated that CMS would exercise enforcement discretion for clinical indications of coverage for the oxygen NCDs...