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Honorable ______________,
House of Representatives
The very controversial budget reconciliation bill, known as the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (S. 1932), narrowly passed in the Senate after a tie breaking vote by the Vice President. The bill is now being returned to the House for another vote. This bill has been publicly opposed by the homecare industry, medical device manufacturers, along with numerous professional clinical and patient advocacy organizations, simply because it is bad for patient care. You now have the opportunity to help defeat this bill with a NO vote.
An alarming and completely unexpected provision in the bill is a new rent-to-purchase payment policy for home oxygen after 36 months. Based on language in the bill, after a maximum 36 month rental period, all home oxygen stationary and portable technologies will be considered “purchased” and the title of the equipment and responsibilities for the maintenance, service and repair of the devices transferred to the beneficiary. This is a drastic, unprecedented and inappropriate shift of oxygen from the frequent and substantial service category to a rent-to-own payment model and was promoted based on misleading and incorrect information disseminated by the proponents of capping payments for medical treatments.
Oxygen is a federal legend drug and the devices are dispensed by prescription only. Transferring the burden of maintenance and repair of sophisticated oxygen technologies to the patient (beneficiary) and therefore the management of their home oxygen therapy presents a serious risk to patient safety and care. This will produce the undesired effect of unmonitored and unregulated dispensing and distribution of a prescription drug.
Patient-owned oxygen equipment creates patient safety and care concerns not historically associated with home oxygen therapy. There are numerous other critical concerns associated with this change in payment for oxygen, including, but not limited to:
- Ensuring that elderly patients who are forced to purchase the oxygen technologies perform the required scheduled maintenance and service to ensure they are getting the prescribed dose and quality of oxygen.
- Ensuring that patients have access to new or different technologies that may be needed as their disease progresses and their oxygen needs change or exceed the abilities of the purchased device. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which millions of Americans suffer from, is a progressive disease that becomes more debilitating with time. These COPD patients are the very beneficiaries who need in-home visits by respiratory therapists and other interventions, including different oxygen technology. Once purchased, the patients will be left without clinical or technical support to guide them through these critical and difficult stages of their disease.
- Ensuring that patients can adequately manage their oxygen in the event of natural or man-made emergencies that effect power or damage their homes.
- Ensuring a safe and appropriate mechanism to dispose of a patient’s used home oxygen equipment to prevent misuse or illegal distribution of a prescription drug.
The frequent-and-substantial service category was established to ensure Medicare beneficiaries have ongoing access to sophisticated medical technologies that need support and service from trained and expert professionals. Oxygen and the technologies that produce and deliver it are clearly the foundation of this payment category and must be sustained.
Please protect the rights of Medicare beneficiaries and promote clinical safety by voting NO against the budget reconciliation bill, known as the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
Respectfully,
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