Weighing in on National Pulmonary Rehabilitation Coverage

The purpose of this analysis is to look at what impact a national pulmonary health coverage bill would have on patients, insurance providers, hospitals, and allied health workers. National coverage would extend coverage availability to all underserved areas where coverage is currently unavailable; however at a huge cost. There are millions of individuals that could benefit from pulmonary rehabilitation services, but under the proposed legislation for national coverage many programs would have to close the doors because of low reimbursement and many hospitals will be hesitant to start new programs. The current program operates on a fee for service basis where all therapies rendered are line item billable. The proposed legislation could package all services into a fee per day payment system. This would force programs to operate using skeleton staff and stray from the multidisciplinary approach that is most effective in treating pulmonary patients.