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.