[Mardi]

Does anyone know if Medicare mentions anywhere how many nasal cannulas should be supplied to a patient on a monthly basis? I have a patient who has asked for 8 in the last few weeks. She insists she needs to change them every 5 days (despite education on our part to the contrary). This well exceeds what we routinely supply other patients, so I'm wondering if I can reference Medicare in some way to place a reasonable limit to her requests. Any ideas? How do others handle this?

[Regina]

As far as I know, Medicare says we have to supply whatever the patient "needs". Of course that is open to interpretation. I have argued with them regarding excessive tanks, and they tell me we have to give the patient what they request. My only suggestion would be to check with the cannula company to see what replacement time they suggest, although it doesn't sound like the patient will listen anyway.

[DeeDee]

It's very unfortunate that Medicare doesn't set any type of limits. Providers are constantly suffering through allowable cuts and unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about the amount of supplies.