RETIRED - Oxygen Policy Revision

IMPORTANT: THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS OUTDATED INFORMATION.

Content Provided on this page contains outdated information and instruction and should not be considered current. Noridian is providing this archived information for research purposes only. This archived article contains previously issued instructions that have since been updated or are no longer applicable for Medicare billing purposes.

Article retired due to content incorporation into the applicable Local Coverage Determination or related Policy Article.

Original Effective Date: 09/12/2003
Revision Effective Date: 11/01/2013

A revision of the Oxygen policy is included in the accompanying DMERC Region D Supplier Manual update. The changes are effective for claims related to CMNs with initial dates on or after January 1, 2004. A document providing a partial response to comments received relating to the draft policy is posted on the CIGNA Medicare local medical review policy Web site at www.cignamedicare.com/dmerc/lmrp.

The draft revision of the LMRP on Oxygen and Oxygen Equipment was initially released for comment in July 2001. Two major changes were proposed. First, a proposal to change the criteria for patients who qualify for oxygen based only on a sleep study to require that the qualifying test value be present for at least 5 minutes. Currently no minimum length of time is specified. This change has been incorporated into the final LMRP.

Second, the draft LMRP proposed to change the recertification of Group I patients from the current 12 months to 3 months and to require retesting prior to recertification. Due to technical considerations relating to policy implementation, revisions to the LMRP dealing with the recertification requirements for Group I patients are not included in the current revision. They will be included in a future revision of the policy. Response to comments relating to those changes will be published at that time.

Finally, the final policy incorporates additional guidance on CMNs that is also included in a separate article in this bulletin (See "CMN Table", page 7).

 

Last Updated Dec 11 , 2023