CMS Proposes Medicare Coverage Of Sleep Apnea Treatment For Beneficiaries Diagnosed With Home Tests
Currently, Medicare covers a sleep apnea treatment called CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, but only for beneficiaries diagnosed with tests performed in sleep laboratories. Such tests cost about $1,500, compared with about $500 for home tests for sleep apnea.
Under the proposal, which likely will become final in March after a public comment period, Medicare beneficiaries could obtain home tests for sleep apnea from any physician, not only sleep specialists. According to the Daily Star, the "controversial" proposal could prove "far-reaching," as more than half of the estimated 18 million U.S. residents with sleep apnea remain undiagnosed.
Terence Davidson of the University of California-San Diego, a supporter of home tests for sleep apnea, said, "It's been awkward and inconvenient and expensive to get a sleep test, and now that should be improved" (AP/Arizona Daily Star, 1/8).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
CMS propune Medicare acoperirea Sleep Apnea Tratamentul pentru beneficiarii diagnosticaþi cu Home Teste - CMS Proposes Medicare Coverage Of Sleep Apnea Treatment For Beneficiaries Diagnosed With Home Tests - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate