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Jan
1
2009
This entry was posted by admin on Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 6:45 pm (UTC), and is categorically filed in Insurance, Top News.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revises the reimbursement rates for all services. During the review and revision process for the coming year, there’s often at least one or two areas that bring about heated discussion in the private sector over reimbursement, generally because of a reduction or a less-than-wanted/less-than-desired increase. This year, as over the past few years, home oxygen was a hot topic.
CMS announced late last year it was reviewing issues related to sleep apnea. The reason given was because the number of Medicare claims over the past few years have shot up like rocket. Much of that is attributed to patient education, community awareness, and various outreach efforts, such as those initiated by Awake In America and other organizations.
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People with even minimally symptomatic obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of impaired endothelial function and increased arterial stiffness, according to a study from the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine in the United Kingdom.
“It was previously known that people with OSA severe enough to affect their daytime alertness and manifest in other ways are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but this finding suggests that many more people — some of whom may be completely unaware that they even have OSA — are at risk than previously thought,” said lead author of the study, Malcolm Kohler, M.D.
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Interesting Apnea Statistics
~~ Apnea in United States ~~
As of May 2, 2009 at 9:47 p.m. (-0500) (ET), the U.S. population
was 306,340,710. Sleep researchers estimate approximately seven percent
of the population suffers from obstructive sleep apnea. Using that
estimate, there are potentially 21,443,850 apneics in the U.S.
~~ Apnea around the world ~~
As of May 2, 2009 at 9:47 p.m. (-0500) (ET), the world population
was 6,777,286,604. Sleep researchers estimate approximately seven percent
of the population suffers from obstructive sleep apnea. Using that
estimate, there are potentially 474,410,062 apneics in the world.
