Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published Amy Merrick's article "Oxygen Rules Pinching Patients". This is the first story from a national publication which discusses the scenarios that providers have been warning legislators about for the last 12 months: extened hospital stays because patients were unable to get oxygen equipment and services and unemployment caused by the mass closings of providers in the aftermath of the mandatory accreditation and surety bond requirements.

The article begins:

New Medicare rules designed to reduce waste and fraud in medical-equipment reimbursements are driving some home-oxygen suppliers out of business and leaving patients scrambling to find new providers.

The new payment rules, effective Jan. 1, affect the more than one million people who rely on Medicare to pay for oxygen services, which relieve the symptoms of conditions such as emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

"It's totally penny-wise and pound-foolish," says Barbara Renzullo, a nurse and case manager at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Some patients, unable to find a new supplier because their reimbursement rate has fallen so far, "wind up in the hospital."

On extended patient hospital visits

Ms. Renzullo, at Massachusetts General, said she has seen patients forgo using oxygen when their suppliers closed and no other company would take them. In January, one terminally ill patient wanted to move to Virginia to live with her daughter, Ms. Renzullo says. But the patient had reached the three-year oxygen payment cap, and no supplier in Virginia would accept her. The patient spent extra days in the hospital while Ms. Renzullo tried to sort out the situation. Ultimately, a Massachusetts supplier mailed an oxygen concentrator to Virginia.

On unemployed HME Professionals:

Respiratory therapist Bob Sherman is job hunting after his company, Family Pharmacy and Valley Medical Supply in Stevensville, Mont., decided to exit the durable medical-equipment business. The costs for accreditation and a surety bond, coupled with lower reimbursements, cut too far into profits, he says.

Send the article to your legislators
A PDF copy of the article with the above mentioned paragraphs highlighted is attached. AMEPA urges all providers to forward this to your legislators regardless if they have or have not already co-sponsored HR-3790.

Download Highlighted PDF version of WSJ article

Happy Thanksgiving