Home oxygen providers say HCFA standards overdue
Home oxygen providers say HCFA standards overdue
Home oxygen providers believe they have little to fear from the Government Accounting Offices (GAO’s) recent findings that development of service standards for home oxygen suppliers should be a priority of the HCFA.
"It is about time that HCFA got around to issuing standards for home oxygen equipment suppliers," says Erin Bush, associate director of government relations for the Health Industry Distributors Association in Alexandria, VA. "We have been working toward more realistic standards ever since we held a consensus conference on this issue in 1996."
As the GAO pointed out, the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which slashed Medicare rates for home oxygen by a stiff 30%, also required the establishment of service standards for Medicare’s home oxygen benefit. But that requirement was never fulfilled.
What’s behind the delay? HCFA watchers say the agency’s resources have been sapped by other priorities, notably Y2K computer modifications. "This has just not been a priority even though Congress and GAO have repeatedly asked them to do it," says Bush. "They are caught up with Y2K computer updates, which are all-consuming."
In response to the report, HCFA told the GAO it plans to publish new service standards that will apply to all durable medical equipment providers in the next few months followed by specific service standards for home oxygen.
But even if this comes about, it might have only a marginal impact on the industry, says health care attorney Michael DeCarlo of Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky in Washington, DC. "Service standards might be a red herring’ as far as what is really needed in the industry," argues Decarlo, a veteran of many durable medical equipment wars. DeCarlo points to significant changes in home oxygen technology that are changing the way the industry functions. "The industry is already making fewer visits and manufacturer’s recommendations are stretching those visits out as well," he says.
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