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CHAMP Act Threatens to Further Reduce Oxygen Cap Period
On July 26, the Ways and Means Committee debated oxygen, competitive bidding and power wheelchairs in a hearing on the children's health bill. The committee approved H.R. 3162, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 (CHAMP) Act. The Ways and Means Committee package would reduce the cap period for oxygen from 36 to 18 months but would retain the 36-month rental period for portable oxygen equipment. Transfer of ownership of oxygen equipment to the beneficiary would be subject to these limits.
On Aug. 3, the Senate passed a similar version of the bill, though it did not include any provisions affecting home care.
A number of members of the House Ways and Means Committee went to bat for home care by providing favorable amendments on oxygen payments, wheelchair policy and competitive bidding. Representatives expressed concern about the home care cuts in the bill, including Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., who discussed the oxygen cut, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who mentioned both the oxygen and the power wheelchair issues, and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., the lead sponsor of the Home Oxygen Patient Protection Act, who referred to a recent letter opposing the oxygen cut from AAHomecare, the Council for Quality Respiratory Care (CQRC), COPD-ALERT, the National Emphysema and COPD Association, and the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis, which specifically mentioned oxygen.
According to the CQRC, the letter, dated July 31, to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, states, "Proposals to cap Medicare payments for vital home oxygen therapy at 18 months would severely impair the provider community's ability to ensure access to quality home oxygen services. Of the more than one million frail and vulnerable beneficiaries currently relying on oxygen therapy in their homes, 35 percent will feel the direct, damaging, and potentially irreversible effects of such profound cuts in this critical benefit."
Now, the bill must pass several hurdles. "There will be some kind of process to reconcile the two bills," says Michael Reinemer, AAHomecare's vice president of communications and policy. "That House-Senate conference process will give us an opportunity to make sure (home care) doesn't get included."
Providers are encouraged to contact senators and representatives during August to insist that cuts to home care be removed from the bill.
AAHomecare has issued talking points as telephone scripts to assist providers and patients in making calls to Congress. (Available at www.aahomecare.org.) The organization recommended phone calls or electronic messages filled out on the congressional member's individual Web site to ensure that the messages are delivered quickly and directly. AAHomecare also encouraged providers to contact organizations that can lend support by getting patients involved, including the American Lung Association.
President Bush has threatened to veto the bill. "That's another big question mark about the whole bill," says Reinemer. He says this and other obstacles to the bill might work in favor of oxygen patients. "The tragedy is that as far as we're concerned, clearly children's health is critically important, but to pay for it by reducing benefits to seniors on oxygen or who use power wheelchairs is just tragic."
