Obstructive sleep apnea patients adhere to positive airway pressure treatment just as well whether diagnosis and titration occur at home or in the sleep laboratory, researchers found.
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Medicare
Nov
16
2010
Home sleep studies not a compliance barrier
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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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Sep
26
2008
ResMed reports record-breaking revenues continue
ResMed Inc. announced revenue and income results for the fiscal quarter which ended on June 30, 2008. Revenue for the quarter was a record $235.2 million, a 23 percent increase over the fiscal quarter which ended one year ago, on June 30, 2007.
Income from operations and net income for the current quarter were $37.0 million and $29.6 million, respectively. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2008 was $0.38. For the quarter ended June 30, 2008, an additional expense of $3.1 million has been recognized as a charge to cost of sales in relation to the voluntary recall announced in April 2007 related to an earlier series of S8 flow generators.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has expanded Medicare coverage for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices to include beneficiaries who have been diagnosed, using a home sleep test, with obstructive sleep apnea. CMS also announced changes to simplify certain test requirements.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition characterized by the complete cessation of breathing for a period of at least 10 seconds (apnea) during sleep. In most instances, obstructive sleep apnea is diagnosed by counting the number of sleep disturbances that occur during a specific time interval. Up to four million Medicare beneficiaries may suffer from some form of obstructive sleep apnea.
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The number of elderly individuals newly diagnosed with heart failure has declined during the past ten years, but the number of those living with the condition has increased, according to a report in the February 25, 2008, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
“Heart failure affects nearly five million people in the United States, and more than 300,000 die each year as a result of the disease. Heart failure is primarily a disease of elderly persons and, consequently, places a significant and growing economic burden on the Medicare program,” according to background information in the article. The number of people age 65 or older hospitalized for heart failure from 1984 to 2002 rose by more than 30 percent.
Over the next decade, as further studies are conducted, it will be interesting to see the correlation between sleep apnea and heart failure, as well as survival rates, show up in the statistics.
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Previously uninsured adults who received Medicare coverage reported improvements in health, especially those with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, according to a study published in the December 26 issue of JAMA.
“Uninsured near-elderly adults, particularly those with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, experience worse health outcomes and use more health services as Medicare beneficiaries after age 65 years than insured near-elderly adults. Because chronic diseases are prevalent and insurance coverage is often unaffordable for older uninsured adults, the impact of near-universal Medicare coverage at age 65 years on the health of previously uninsured adults may be substantial,” the authors write.
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The number of Americans having weight-loss surgery more than quadrupled between 1998 and 2002 — from 13,386 to 71,733 — with part of the increase driven by a 900 percent rise in operations on patients between the ages of 55 and 64, according to a new study by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The study is being published in the July 12, 2005 issue of Health Affairs.
During the same period, hospital costs for treating patients who underwent weight-loss surgery increased by more than six times — from $157 million a year to $948 million a year — and the average cost per surgery increased by roughly 13 percent, from $11,705 to $13,215.
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