An Open Letter to Oxygen Providers
August 7, 2009
The undersigned independent providers of home oxygen and organizations that represent HME providers across the country think it is necessary to address some of the misunderstandings and misinformation that have been circulated recently about efforts to reform the home oxygen benefit under Medicare.
Oxygen providers are in a battle for survival. The only course of action that will address both the immediate problems associated with the 36-month cap and ensure longer term stability of the oxygen benefit is through legislation in Congress that will reform the Medicare oxygen program. The delivery of oxygen services and equipment is an evolving business and the community of oxygen providers must take a leading role in shaping the future course of this healthcare sector.
Presently, Congressman Mike Ross has a legislative proposal in the House of Representatives (H.R. 3220) that presents a series of fundamental reforms to the oxygen benefit. The Ross proposal protects oxygen providers, guards patient rights, withdraws oxygen from competitive bidding, eliminates the 36-month cap on oxygen, and delivers a budget-neutral reform proposal to Congress. "Budget neutral" means the overall sum of Medicare dollars dedicated to oxygen reimbursement will not be reduced—those funds may be redistributed over a longer time horizon and weighted differently but the sum of dollars will not be reduced. Other oxygen proposals being put forth by the industry will shrink the total sum of dollars available to pay for home oxygen reimbursement.
As independent oxygen providers and organizations that represent the HME community, we want to encourage all of our colleagues and groups that have not joined this letter to support the Ross proposal. While H.R. 3220 will undoubtedly need modification and certainly be revised during House and Senate negotiations, the Ross legislative vehicle is the best opportunity for the oxygen community to get its concerns addressed in this session of Congress. Congressman Ross has committed to getting his bill introduced as an amendment to a healthcare reform bill, and he will work with us to make changes as health reform moves through the legislative process.
Those in the oxygen community who have complaints about provisions in the Ross bill can point to no other viable legislative option at this juncture for protecting the oxygen benefit. We think the best course of action is to work within the oxygen community to improve the Ross proposal rather than to kill the entire initiative and hope that something better will surface in the coming months. Without a viable reform proposal in the pipeline, oxygen providers face the more likely prospect of further unmitigated cuts to the benefit when the Senate and House reconvene in September.
It is imperative that oxygen providers from all corners of the country and from all parts of the industry work to find common ground on the major issues confronting the collective industry. We must set aside or work through our differences because success will only be achievable if we come together as a united HME community.
Our industry is at a crossroads. If we do not actively support an oxygen reform program and work to refine it, we will be relegated to the status quo and to yearly fights always hoping to fend off further reductions in reimbursement. We urge everyone in the oxygen community to work together to find common ground and develop consensus on the Ross proposal. Through that process, we will find that we have more in common than divides us. United we stand, divided we fall.
Sincerely,
Georgetta Blackburn, BLACKBURN'S, Tarentum, Pa.
Douglas E. Coleman, Major Medical Supply, Loveland, Colo.
Jackie Bolt, Carolina Homecare Medical Equipment Center, Greenville, S.C.
A.J. Filippis, Wright & Filippis, Inc., Rochester Hills, Mich.
Joel Marx, Medical Service Company, Cleveland, Ohio
Tom Ryan, Homecare Concepts, Inc., Farmingdale, N.Y.
Alan Landauer, Landauer Metropolitan, Inc., Harrison, N.Y.
Colorado Association for Medical Equipment Services, Littleton, Colo.
New York State Medical Equipment Providers Association, Albany, N.Y.
Ohio Association of Medical Equipment Services, Columbus, Ohio
Tennessee Association for Home Care, Nashville, Tenn.
www.aahomecare.org
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