Get Oxygen Reform to the Hill, Proponents Say

ATLANTA — A Medicare oxygen reform plan has the potential
to help the industry, but the time to move forward is now, the
former chairman of the American Association for Homecare said last
week.

“At the end of the day, I think it is going to be very good for
the industry. But we need to move forward and find some champions
on Capitol Hill,” said Tom Ryan, president and CEO of Homecare
Concepts in Farmingdale, N.Y., and immediate past chairman of
AAHomecare.

Crafted by the New Oxygen Coalition, the benefit reform plan
would eliminate the 36-month oxygen cap, remove oxygen from
competitive bidding and recognize the services home oxygen
providers render. But some providers have balked at a provision in
the plan that would change status from oxygen “supplier” to
“provider” and at its measures on cost reporting. (See Oxygen
Reform Plan Moves Ahead with ‘Provider’ Change Intact, April
13.)

Ryan said he knows controversy still swirls around the plan.
However, he said, “We are in a level of threat. I don’t think we
should be led to believe that we are out of the woods.” He said
there is still talk in Washington of cutting the 36-month cap to 18
or 13 months, and noted another potential cut if competitive
bidding moves forward under CMS’ interim final rule.

Alyce Crossman of UpState Home Care in Clinton, N.Y., and
president of the New York Medical Equipment Providers Association,
echoed Ryan.

The reform plan “is giving us a chance to get together and find
a way to keep the access and service to the patients,” she said. “I
would rather have a part in shaping the future of our industry than
let [legislators and regulatory agencies] do it on their own.”

But, Crossman said, time is of the essence. The plan’s
proponents are hopeful oxygen reform can become part of the
nation’s overall health care reform package and are working to get
draft legislation up to Capitol Hill, she said.

In a letter last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max
Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., told President Obama their
committees will consider health care reform legislation in early
June. Baucus has said he wants reform legislation to clear the
Senate by the August congressional recess, and lawmakers in the
House have set a similar timetable for action on health reform.