CQRC: ‘Time is ripe’ on oxygen
By Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
Updated 1:21 PM CDT, Fri September 9, 2022
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WASHINGTON – With local coverage determinations for home oxygen therapy anticipated in October, Crispin Teufel, chair of the Council for Quality Respiratory Care, hopes the industry will get more clarity on a post-CMN environment.
The CMS requirement for CMNs is set to expire Jan. 1, 2023, and the industry has been pushing for a simple template with clear and objective clinical elements, says Teufel, who is also the CEO of Lincare.
“There’s not a lot of time, but the LCDs, hopefully, will help clarify some of the points that everyone is waiting for,” he said. “I think we will see some movement on CMS’s side to at least test out a template, and then, as usual, it will be up in the air.”
CMS has had such a template in the works since 2015, but when Melanie Combs-Dyer left the agency, it was largely shelved.
Efforts recently got a boost from a “Dear Colleague” letter, spearheaded by Reps. Terri Sewell, D.-Ala., and Larry Bucshon, R.-Ind., which urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to ensure that Medicare contractor documentation requirements are consistent and standardized.
“With the pandemic, the waiver of the CMN that’s already in place during the public health emergency, and some of the attention from lawmakers that we’ve gotten, the time is ripe to get this in place,” said Teufel.
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