Palliative care screening, sleep devices, novel biologics

April 11, 2018 | CHEST Physician

Sleep medicine

Diagnostics, devices, and sleep

The past several months have been busy for the Sleep Medicine NetWork. We have been working to represent the interests of our membership and our patients in many arenas.

Devices coded as E0464, defined as life support mechanical ventilators used with mask-based ventilation in the home are being more frequently used. According to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), there has been an 89-fold increase in billing for E0464 ventilators for Medicare and its beneficiaries between 2009 and 2015, increasing from $3.8M to $340M. In response, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) requested a response to specific questions related to these devices.

The CHEST Sleep Medicine NetWork, in conjunction with NAMDRC, submitted a document emphasizing the unique needs of patients of differing disease states (ie, how someone with neuromuscular disease differs from one with COPD) and why some patients may require an E0464 device. The ability of CHEST staff and leadership to streamline evaluation and response allowed our voice to be heard in real-time.

In 2018, the CHEST Sleep Medicine NetWork will be participating in a Federal Drug Association-sponsored workshop entitled “Study Design Considerations for Devices including Digital Health Technologies for Sleep-Disordered Breathing (SDB) in Adults,” along with other national organizations and leaders in our field. This workshop will address available technologies for the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of SDB, as well as trends for digital health technologies and clinical trial design considerations.

Finally, the Sleep Medicine NetWork has wasted no time after a successful CHEST 2017 in Toronto in planning for the next annual meeting in San Antonio. We are excited to present an exciting curriculum in Sleep Medicine at CHEST 2018, so stay tuned.

Aneesa M. Das, MD, FCCP

NetWork Chair