Ohio Medicaid wants a $75 per
month capped concentrator

NewsWire
July 25, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio HME suppliers are meeting with officials from the state's Medicaid program today, hoping to derail plans to reduce reimbursement for oxygen concentrators to $75 per month and cap rental fees at the purchase price of the unit.

The proposed policy changes go beyond concentrators to include the entire DME fee schedule, which would be capped at the fair market purchase price of the product.

"The state has lost its mind," said Ric Wren, a former president of the Ohio Association of Medical Equipment Suppliers. "They haven't thought through this at all -- about who maintains the equipment and who goes out to the house and so on."

The policy changes are scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1. In the meantime, suppliers are scrambling to undo the severity of the proposals at the state's Medicaid administrator, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).

Historically, OAMES has engaged in dialogue with the ODJFS in advance of policy changes.

"That dialogue does not exist this time," said Kam Yuricich, OAMES executive director. "We made recommendations to a draft of the policy but rather than accepting our suggestions, [the proposals] got worse and more burdensome."

Yuricich believes ODJFS is under enormous pressure to reduce expenditures, and Wren believes the administrators are picking on HME suppliers because they can.

In 2004, Ohio spent $145 million on home medical equipment, including $10 million for oxygen in long term care facilities, $12 million for oxygen in the home and $34 million for wheelchairs.
 

Press Release Source: Invacare Corporation

ELYRIA, Ohio, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- For the more than one million individuals diagnosed with respiratory disease requiring continuous home oxygen therapy, life can suddenly seem very limited. But a breakthrough in oxygen technology is changing that.
Invacare Corporation has introduced the HomeFill(TM) II Oxygen System, which allows users to go about their daily routine without having to rely on home oxygen delivery.


Most people on home oxygen suffer from emphysema, bronchitis or other chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). According to the American Lung Association, more than 16 million people have been diagnosed with COPD and 1.2 million are on home oxygen therapy.

The accepted treatment for advanced COPD is continuous oxygen, and it has been proved effective. "The biggest issue is compliance," says William Corrao, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at Brown University. "The older technology is cumbersome and not user friendly. People get short of breath moving it around, so they don't use it."

The HomeFill system addresses those issues. It enables patients to refill their own compact cylinders at home easily and safely, rather than depending on weekly home oxygen delivery. One 4.3 lb. cylinder provides more than 5 hours of ambulatory time and can be refilled over and over. The patient carries the cylinder in a convenient pack worn over the shoulder or around the waist.

The HomeFill system allows people like Kathy Graham to lead a more normal life. "I can't be active without my oxygen," she says. "If I didn't have it, I couldn't do anything. I'd just sit and even then I would have trouble breathing."

The benefits of the new technology go beyond convenience. Oxygen patients who are able to remain active are healthier and they live longer. Results from the NOTT study (Nocturnal Oxygen Therapy Trial), a key respiratory study, showed highly ambulatory patients on continuous oxygen therapy had a 50% higher survival rate than low ambulatory, nighttime only patients.

Invacare Corporation (NYSE: IVC - News), headquartered in Elyria, Ohio, is the global leader in the manufacture and distribution of innovative home and long- term care medical products that promote recovery and active lifestyles. The company has 5,700 associates and markets its products in 80 countries around the world. For more information about the company and its products, visit Invacare's website at www.invacare.com .