As president of the American Thoracic Society, I applaud Senator Bill Cassidy and Senator Mark Warner for introducing the Supplemental Oxygen Access Reform Act (SOAR) to reform Medicare’s reimbursement of supplemental oxygen.
The current Medicare system for providing supplemental oxygen does not serve patient needs, creating needless suffering. Patients have suffered from low quality equipment to supply their oxygen. They have suffered from insufficient support staff to fix problems with their oxygen service. They have suffered from being given big, bulky, heavy oxygen systems that prevent them from ever leaving their homes and being part of a larger community most of us take for granted.
The legislation that Senators Cassidy and Warner introduced today will reform Medicare’s oxygen reimbursement system by ensuring patients get the oxygen system they truly need and not just the cheapest oxygen system available. I look forward to working with Senators Cassidy and Warner to see this important legislation enacted by Congress.
M. Patricia Rivera, MD, ATSF
President
American Thoracic Society