A Wall Street Journal piece, "Oxygen Rules Pinching Patients," published Nov. 24, 2009, outlines the challenges faced by both patients and durable medical equipment providers due to new Medicare oxygen policies.
The article states the rules are "leaving patients scrambling to find new providers. The new payment rules, effective Jan. 1, affect the more than one million people who rely on Medicare to pay for oxygen services, which relieve the symptoms of conditions such as emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
'It's totally penny-wise and pound-foolish,' says Barbara Renzullo, a nurse and case manager at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Some patients, unable to find a new supplier because their reimbursement rate has fallen so far, 'wind up in the hospital.'"
To read the full article, visit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574553853254763272.html
For further information about oxygen policy changes, visit www.aahomecare.org/oxygen.
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