Oxygen Stakeholders on Road to Unity

WASHINGTON — The American Association for Homecare and the
National
Association of Independent Medical Equipment Suppliers have
agreed on a compromise package born of a meeting of stakeholders
with a common interest in home oxygen reimbursement relief but
disparate ideas on how to ease the current crisis.

In an email to its members late Friday, AAHomecare said, “The
association’s executive committee has looked at the oxygen
provisions that are included in the compromise and believes that
the proposal is consistent with the association’s goal for oxygen
reform.”

On Tuesday, groups representing factions of the home oxygen
community huddled in Washington to air differences that have lately
divided them.

In addition to AAHomecare and NAIMES — which had squared
off over some provisions in H.R. 3220, a bill introduced by Rep. Mike Ross,
D-Ark., that would overhaul Medicare’s oxygen benefit —
participating organizations included the National Home Oxygen
Patients Association, the National Association for Medical
Direction in Respiratory Care, the American Association for
Respiratory Care, the American Thoracic Surgeons, the American Lung
Association, CSI: HME and the Coalition for Quality Respiratory
Care.

In a day-long meeting held at the ALA offices, the groups
managed to hammer out an agreement. According to AAHomecare, the
compromise would:

• Eliminate the current 36-month cap on oxygen payments;
• Recognize the services that are provided as part of the oxygen
  benefit;
• Create a mechanism to show cost transparency that is less
  burdensome than that called for in the current provision under the
  Ross bill; and
• Preserve the definition of oxygen companies as “suppliers”
  instead of “providers” as proposed in H.R. 3220.

The compromise proposal does not include:

• Provisions related to geographic adjustments; or
• Removing oxygen from competitive bidding. That issue would be
  addressed in separate legislation designed to eliminate the bidding
  program.

“This is an important step in the right direction, which means
getting all stakeholders in the oxygen community working together
toward a common goal,” Tyler Wilson, the association’s president,
told members. However, he added, “After stakeholders reach
agreement, many additional steps in the legislative process will
remain before reforms are enacted or providers can take
comfort.”

Ross, a former HME owner, has told H.R. 3220 supporters he would
work to get an oxygen reform plan inserted as an amendment to the
Energy and Commerce Committee’s health care reform bill. The
committee passed its bill before Congress’ summer recess but still
has more than 50 amendments to consider.

Wayne Stanfield, president and CEO of NAIMES, said the
organization would back the oxygen compromise.

In a NAIMES update, Stanfield called Tuesday’s face-to-face a
“very positive meeting [resulting] in mutual concessions and
compromises from all sides,” and said a revised draft amendment
would be sent for approval by the respective boards and executive
committees in hopes it could “ultimately be included in health care
reform legislation.”

“We are pleased to support the compromise proposal,” Stanfield
said. “We look forward to supporting the final language and joining
forces with AAHomecare, state organizations and the rest of the
supplier community to protect the greater good of the entire
industry.”