Noninvasive Home Ventilators - Compliance With Medicare Requirements

For items such as noninvasive home ventilators (NHVs) and respiratory assist devices (RADs) to be covered by Medicare, they must be reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of illness or injury or to improve the functioning of a malformed body member. Depending on the severity of the beneficiary's condition, an NHV or RAD may be reasonable and necessary. NHVs can operate in several modes, i.e., traditional ventilator mode, RAD mode, and basic continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mode. The higher cost of the NHVs' combination of noninvasive interface and multimodal capability creates a greater risk that a beneficiary will be provided an NHV when a less expensive device such as a RAD or CPAP device is warranted for the patient's medical condition. Prior OIG work identified significant growth in Medicare billing for NHVs in the years since they reached the market. We will determine whether claims for NHVs were medically necessary for the treatment of beneficiaries' diagnosed illnesses and whether the claims complied with Medicare payment and documentation requirements.

Announced or Revised	Agency	Title	Component	Report Number(s)	Expected Issue Date (FY)
Completed	Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services	Noninvasive Home Ventilators - Compliance With Medicare Requirements	Office of Audit Services	A-04-18-04066; W-00-18-35809	2024