Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Positive Airway Pressure Adherence Criteria May Limit Treatment to Many Medicare Beneficiaries.
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ABSTRACT: STUDY OBJECTIVES:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement for positive airway pressure (PAP) devices for obstructive sleep apnea treatment is dependent on patients meeting adherence expectations within the first 3 months on therapy. Adherence is defined as usage of the device for at least 4 hours per night on 70% of nights during a consecutive 30-day period. We hypothesize that the adherence pattern may be established beyond this initial period, which may limit the opportunity to treat many patients. METHODS:Treatment and adherence data from PAP devices were monitored via wireless modems for 42 consecutive PAP-naïve military veterans who completed 1 year of nightly monitoring. Their baseline characteristics were as follows: age (mean ± standard deviation) 58.5 ± 12.5 years; body mass index 33.7 ± 5.7 kg/m2; diagnostic apnea-hypopnea index (pretreatment) 28.1 ± 18.5 events/h; apnea-hypopnea index on PAP: 4.3 ± 3.3 events/h. We examined daily, monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual reports, and the best 30-day adherence report for each quarter. RESULTS:In the first 3 months, 19 of 42 participants were adherent by CMS criteria, and 23 of 42 participants were not. Of the 19 adherent participants, 13 remained adherent and 6 became nonadherent or stopped PAP treatment for the remainder of the year. In the 23 initially nonadherent participants, 16 stopped PAP treatment, and 7 participants (30.4%) became adherent (using CMS criteria) during the rest of the year. Thus, PAP adherence during the first 3 months was predictive for the rest of the year in only 68.4%. PAP nonadherence during the first 3 months was predictive for further nonadherence in only 69.6% of the cases. Overall, this led to a 65% sensitivity and 72% specificity of using adherence at 3 months in predicting adherence at 1 year. CONCLUSIONS:CMS adherence criteria affecting PAP coverage are restrictive and can result in the withholding of therapy in many patients who otherwise might become adherent. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION:Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov, Title: Remote Monitoring in Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Identifier: NCT01678560, URL: https:// clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01678560.
SUBMITTER: Naik S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6374085 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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