Viemed Healthcare Inc VMD

My email to OIG

[donmayne]

Dear OIG

Below is the text of an online submission that I made to the Department of Justice concerning a troubling report issued by the OIG.

 

"I recently read a report from the Office of the Inspector General that will cause people witih COPD to die and their health care costs to rise.  The report was conducted from the lens of a financial audit but fails to appreciate a significant shift in medical knowledge about the benefits of non-invasive ventilators (NIV).  The report concluded that there was overbilling as a result of the use of NIVs. At this point, the report could have taken two approaches.  it could have looked at medical evidence and decided that CMS billing codes should be revised or that an independent medical study about the benefits of NIVs should be conducted.  Instead it simply extrapolated its accounting conclusion to all billings and to seek the loudest headline.  People will die as a result of the setbacks to the positive shift in medical treatment of COPD.  In addition the report will force more people with COPD back into costly hospital treatment rather than being treated at home by health professionals.  The OIG (Amy J. Frontz Deputy Inspector General for Audit Services) sought headlines instead of the more responsible route of seeking adjustments in CMS billing codes.  The report does include the response of the audited company but the OIG preferred the headline grabbing route rather than the medically responsible route of taking their findings and working with CMS to adjust its billing codes in light of shifting medical knowledge favoring NIVs.  This report will cause people to die and health care costs to rise.  This is not the professionalism that I want from the OIG."

[JackLambert]

Indeed. Good stuff.   OIG is caught in the old mode of thinking.  Sell the equipment.   Plug it in.  Walk away.    VMD does not do that.  They manage home care -often remotely.  Provide RT services.  Even social workers can consult with the family as the inevitable day slowly approached.   ive tried to describe this as a "virtual hospital

[Tropicalsun]

donmayne I applaud your efforts, I really do. Just to bad that your email likely falls on deaf ears, the information we have all been reading shows a complete disconnect. Yet the OIG still writes this report accusing Viemed of wrong doing, CMS approved 41 of 42 claims, but that seems to mean nothing to the OIG. Clinical studies, which are doctor approved, and now published shows that NIV's

[Tropicalsun]

Just to add, I would have thought that the entire world living thru this pandemic, should very well be enough for all of us who have witnessed first hand how so many lives have been effected by sickness and death. GLTA

[donmayne]

I sent this follow-up email to the responsible author of the report: Dear Ms. Frontz:    I have read your report:  AUDIT OF CLAIMS FOR MONTHLY RENTAL OF NONINVASIVE HOME VENTILATORS   How unfortunate that you have taken only an accounting lens in how you have broadcast your findings because it will have the effect of causing many unnecessary deaths and

[JackLambert]

Nice.  They used a sample of 100.   The statisticians say we can sample if the population is homogeneous and the sample is representative and free from bias.   My belief is the sample is not so.  The population is in the tens of thousands over several years.   I doubt any statistician worth his money would buy off on this approach. The sample is not valid   The