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07/24/2023
AAHomecare Alert: House Oxygen Sign-On Letter Closes July 27
Use AAHomecare Voter Voice advocacy tool to quickly send a pre-drafted letter to your Representative.
Reps. Terry Sewell (D-AL) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) are asking their colleagues in the House to endorse measures to maintain strong access to home oxygen for individuals with respiratory challenges. Please take action today to ask your Representative to join this Congressional sign-on letter that asks CMS to:
- Accept the standard written order (SWO) as the only necessary documentation to establish medical necessity when auditing Medicare claims of patients who received home oxygen, sleep therapy, or non-invasive ventilation equipment during the recently ended COVID-19 Public PHE.
- Protect patient access by instructing contractors to use CMS’ widely accepted oxygen clinical data element templates, along with the standard written order, in lieu of medical record notes, to determine medical necessity.
In the “Dear Colleague” message accompanying the sign-on letter, Reps. Sewell and Smith note that “streamlined, clear guidance for suppliers to establish medical necessity would prevent additional overloading of the already stressed healthcare system.” The Dear Colleague message also lists leading patient/clinician groups and respiratory stakeholders who have already weighed in with CMS in favor of adopting the clinical template approach in lieu of using medical record notes, including AAHomecare, CQRC, and VGM.
The letter is set to close on July 27. Please reach out to your Representative's healthcare staffer to ask that their office join the letter or use our Voter Voice advocacy system to make that request. You can modify the pre-drafted message there to include your own perspectives and experiences supporting oxygen patients.
