Senate Scraps Proposed 13-Month O2 Cap

ATLANTA–Respiratory providers were breathing a little easier
last week after they learned that a proposed 13-month cap on rental
of oxygen equipment has been taken off the table, at least for the
time being.

“I’m going to sleep a lot better tonight … At least for now it
appears we have dodged a bullet,” Invacare CEO Mal Mixon commented
at the American Association for Homecare Humanitarian Dinner
Tuesday night during Medtrade. (See Invacare’s Mixon
Honored at AAHomecare Fundraiser.)

Earlier this month, the HHS Office of Inspector General said
that the Deficit Reduction Act’s 36-month oxygen rental cap did not
go far enough, and recommended that CMS work to reduce the rental
period to 13 months (see HomeCare Monday, Sept. 18).

“Unfortunately, Sen. Charles Grassley, [R-Iowa], either
knowingly or unknowingly, endorsed this,” John Gallagher, vice
president of government relations for Waterloo, Iowa-based The VGM
Group, explained during a Wednesday morning session at the trade
show.

Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which
oversees Medicare, had planned to turn the proposal into a Senate
bill. “That’s scary,” Gallagher said.

But the industry reacted quickly. VGM sent out an alert to Iowa
providers, the Midwest Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers
and VGM’s more than 430 employees asking them to contact Grassley’s
office about the cap and the negative effect it would have on
Medicare beneficiaries. According to Mixon, who called the OIG
report a “biased, flawed, stupid study,” both VGM and Apria
Healthcare “mobilized virtually their entire workforce to make
calls and send faxes” about the report.

“We won one for a change, thanks to you all, thanks to your
beneficiaries, and thanks to the various industry stakeholders,”
Gallagher told conference attendees.

But the industry still needs to be vigilant, Gallagher reminded
the audience. A lame duck session is coming up in Congress and the
proposal could be reintroduced as a House bill. “We all know what
goes on at the 23rd-and-a-half hour with introducing these oxygen
caps,” he said.