CMS Proposes Medicare Coverage Of Sleep Apnea Treatment For Beneficiaries Diagnosed With Home Tests

Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 09 Jan 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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CMS last month announced a proposal to allow Medicare coverage of a sleep apnea treatment for beneficiaries diagnosed with home tests, the AP/Arizona Daily Star reports.

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).

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