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Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Medications,  Treatments,  Therapies >> ALL CH'ers need to read and sign - URGENT!
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Message started by LeLimey on May 4th, 2010 at 4:30pm

Title: ALL CH'ers need to read and sign - URGENT!
Post by LeLimey on May 4th, 2010 at 4:30pm
This could just be the most important thing any of us ever do for people with CH.




Hello, we have been instructed to initiate a ACTION REQUIRED FOR CMS REIMBURSEMENT COVERAGE FOR CLUSTER HEADACHE PATIENTS.

A Formal Request for a National Coverage Assessment at CMS (Medicare) was filed on 4/9/2010 by Dr. Fred Sheftell, MD, President, American Headache Society and Dr. Robert C. Griggs, MD, FAAN, President, American Academy of Neurology. 

The goal of this National Coverage Assessment request is to overturn the present non-coverage determination on oxygen therapy for Medicare beneficiaries who suffer from cluster headaches. Comments from Neurologists who treat Cluster Headache sufferers as well as the Cluster Headache sufferers themselves who use high flow oxygen therapy have a vested interest in this coverage.   

This formal request is in part due to the latest evidence of High Flow Oxygen for the treatment of Cluster Headache. You can find this summary article from Neurology Now.  This article provides additional perspectives from some of the Nation's top neurologists specializing in the treatment of the acute and chronic Cluster Headache.  They list oxygen therapy as the first intervention of choice for the Cluster Headache due to its safety and effectiveness in aborting the most severe pain known to the medical profession. 

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Should you agree with thousands of oxygen prescribers and users of High Flow Oxygen for the treatment of Cluster Headache please find the link below to the CMS page announcing the NCA for Home Use of Oxygen to Treat Cluster Headache (CAG-00296R).  The comment period runs from 4/9/2010 to 5/9/2010. It is urgent to act today before the comment period is closed.   

Go to this link now for comment:
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Title: Re: ALL CH'ers need to read and sign - URGENT!
Post by catlind on May 6th, 2010 at 10:09am
I'd like to mention a side note to this discussion - while it focuses on Medicare/Medicaid coverage, I would ask that everyone please remember that Tricare, the military health care coverage, is based on Medicare.

If Medicare refuses coverage, so will Tricare, and there are a high number of active duty, retirees and veterans in our midst, as well as their family members.  They would all lose their home oxygen coverage.

Our service men and women and their families deserve better.

Cat

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