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Health Professionals: Support Reform of Supplemental Oxygen

If you are a health professional who works with people who require supplemental oxygen, we need your help. We need Congress to act to ensure everyone who needs supplemental oxygen has access to the proper modality and sufficient quantity.

 

As health professionals who prescribe supplemental oxygen for our patients and those with severe respiratory and other conditions, we call on Congress to take action to ensure anyone who needs supplemental oxygen has sufficient access.

For too long, patients who require supplemental oxygen have not had access to oxygen appropriate for their medical and quality of life needs, especially individuals who require liquid oxygen.

The American Lung Association, the American Thoracic Society, the American Association for Respiratory Care, the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation and many other organizations have come together to urge Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to change their policies to ensure anyone who requires supplemental oxygen can access the most appropriate type of oxygen for their needs.

Below are our consensus principles, which will form the basis for efforts for legislative reform.

Four Pillars for Oxygen Reform

1.  Ensure supplemental oxygen is patient-centric:

     *  "Home oxygen" to "supplemental oxygen" to ensure people requiring oxygen can live full lives outside their primary residence
     *  Create a patients bill of rights to ensure care is focused on patient needs
2.  Ensure access to liquid oxygen for patients for whom it is medically necessary
3.  Create a statutory service element to provide adequate reimbursement for respiratory therapists to ensure patients have access to their expertise

4.  To ensure predictable and adequate reimbursement and to protect against fraud and abuse, establish national standardized documentation requirements that rely upon a template rather than prescriber medical records to support claims for supplemental oxygen suppliers

 

The undersigned health professionals call for Congress to take action to ensure anyone who needs supplemental oxygen has appropriate access:  

[List of Health Professionals by State]  
  Please provide the contact information requested below. Only your first name, last initial, city and state will be displayed in the public facing petition. For example, Jane S. from Anytown, State.

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