A Strange Alliance: Oxygen Companies and Their Medicare Patients Want Congress to Pay the Companies More

Oxygen patients are fighting for legislation that would pay the industry hundreds of millions of dollars more than it currently receives.

The SOAR Act would achieve two long-sought goals for the industry, which receives much of its revenues from Medicare .

The bill would protect companies from additional reductions in their billings by removing oxygen from Medicare ’s competitive bidding program.

It would make it far more difficult for the government to challenge those billings.

The SOAR Act would require suppliers to provide equipment setup assistance and monitoring, patient education and 24/7 coverage for emergencies as a condition for Medicare payment.

The bill also includes what advocates call a “patient bill of rights” — and which they view as a major concession by the oxygen companies.

Medicare enforcers never cracked down on the companies.

An investigation examined Medicare data to weigh bidding program’s impact on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Its conclusion: Competitive bidding saved taxpayers and patients hundreds of millions of dollars , without curbing their access to oxygen or hurting their health.

The study has sparked a backlash from the measure's advocates.