AAHomecare Urges Payers to Keep Coverage for High-Frequency Chest Wall Oscillation

The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) is asking commercial payers to retain or restore neuromuscular disease as a coverage criteria for high-frequency chest wall oscillation (HFCWO) after learning that some are revising their airway clearance medical policies to limit coverage to cystic fibrosis and bronchiestasis.

In some cases, payers are designating neuromuscular disease uses as “experimental, investigational, and/or unproven,” AAHomecare said in its newsletter.

The association recently shared a position paper with several commercial payers asking that they retain or restore neuromuscular disease within HFCWO covered-indications criteria. The paper, Aligning Payer Coverage of High-Frequency Chest Wall Oscillation for Neuromuscular Disease with Current Medicare Standards, outlines the clinical rationale for HFCWO in neuromuscular disease, the supporting peer-reviewed evidence and a direct comparison to traditional Medicare’s current durable medica equpment Medicare Administrative Contractor coverage standard, which continues to cover HFCWO for neuromuscular disease and has recently expanded to cerebral palsy.

“Our core request is that HCSC align its neuromuscular disease criteria with this Medicare standard rather than adopt criteria more restrictive than” the one folllowed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,” AAHomecare said.