Industry Leaders Applaud Removal of Budget Neutrality for Oxygen

The Council for Quality Respiratory Care (CQRC)-a coalition of the nation’s leading home respiratory therapy providers and manufacturing companies-thanked The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the appropriate application of recent legislative action to eliminate the budget neutrality statutory requirement to certain home oxygen equipment and services. By doing so, CMS has preserved continued access to home respiratory care for patients living in rural and suburban areas who were most at risk under the previous, outdated budget neutrality requirements.

In December, Congress passed H.R. 8158, which secured a technical fix to cuts that CQRC warned threatened patient access to life-sustaining, physician-prescribed home oxygen supplies and equipment. Specifically, the bill eliminates budget neutrality for home oxygen provided under the Medicare program by excluding the creation of separate payment classes and monthly payment rates for oxygen items.

https://www.homecaremag.com/news/industry-leaders-applaud-removal-budget-neutrality-oxygen