Knowledge Base Article

What do you have on your bedside table - an alarm clock, a lamp, perhaps a good book to lull you to sleep? A new addition to many bedside tables over the past few decades is a C-PAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine for the treatment of sleep apnea. In recent years, the incidence of sleep apnea and C-PAP usage in the United States has increased significantly, likely due in part to the obesity epidemic, increased sleep testing, and the coming of age of the more health-conscious baby boomers. Sleep apnea is not to be taken lightly – the cost in health effects, productivity, and healthcare dollars is staggering.  Some fascinating information on these topics from an internet search include:

American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) 2014 Article

• Sleep apnea afflicts at least 25 million adults in the U.S., according to the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project. It is now estimated that 26 percent of adults between the ages of 30 and 70 years have sleep apnea.
• Obstructive sleep apnea increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and depression.

AASM 2018 Article

• More than 37% of workers (are) sleep-deprived (contributing to) cognitive declines, heightened safety risks and increased economic costs.
• According to the National Safety Council (NSC), sleepy workers are estimated to cost employers $136 billion a year in health-related lost productivity.
• About 13% of work injuries are attributable to sleep deprivation.
• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) estimates that fatigue has been a contributing factor in 20 percent of its (driving-related) investigations over the last two decades.

Wiley Online Library "The Laryngoscope" 2017 Article

• In 2014, 845,569 sleep studies were completed by 1.4% of Medicare beneficiaries for a total of $189 million.
• Since 2010, the number of studies performed has increased by 9.1%.

Sleep Review Journal 2017 Article

• The sleep testing services market is expected to be valued at $8,395.7 million by the end of 2021, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 12.9% during the forecast period (2016–2021), according to a report by Persistence Market Research.
• The growth of the North America sleep services market is driven by favorable reimbursement policies and high awareness of sleep disease.

Another recent trend related to sleep apnea and sleep testing is the change in credentialing requirements by some Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) for hospital-based sleep centers. Prior to the recent changes almost all MACs required sleep testing centers to be certified by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), The Joint Commission (formerly known as JCAHO), or Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc. (ACHC).  Accreditation by either the Joint Commission Hospital or Ambulatory Care Accreditation programs was acceptable for hospital-based sleep centers. If the Joint Commission survey of the general hospital accreditation included the hospital-based sleep lab, an additional accreditation was not needed.

Things began to change in 2017 when 3 MACs, Wisconsin Physician Services (WPS), CGS, and Noridian changed their sleep lab certification requirements so that Joint Commission’s Hospital Accreditation was no longer sufficient to meet the credentialing requirements for a hospital sleep center. The new/revised Local Coverage Determinations (LCDs) require certification by the Joint Commission’s Ambulatory Care Accreditation Program or one of the other approved accreditors (AASM and ACHC). Although the WPS, CGS, and Noridian policies were effective in February, March and June of 2017 respectively, they all issued clarification statements allowing 90 days from the date of the statement to apply for accreditation and 1 year to obtain an accreditation award. This means the accreditation due date for WPS is May 12, 2018; for CGS, May 11, 2018; and June 22, 2018 for Noridian. Hospitals can elect to have all their ambulatory services accredited through the Joint Commission’s Ambulatory Care Accreditation Program or just specifically sleep services only.  You can find more information in a Joint Commission Fact Sheet.

In March 2018, Palmetto GBA followed suit and sleep facilities in the Palmetto Jurisdictions J and M must have sleep-specific accreditation to be eligible for coverage. Palmetto is allowing a much shorter time frame for sleep centers to comply. Here is an excerpt from a future effective Palmetto Article that explains the new requirements and the timeline for compliance.

“As noted above in section 1, outpatient sleep centers affiliated with a hospital which is currently accredited by The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) through the hospital’s accreditation will now be required to obtain separate ambulatory care accreditation for the sleep center if ambulatory services accreditation for the sleep center is not currently in place. This accreditation must be obtained by October 1, 2018 in order to continue to render services to Medicare beneficiaries and submit claims to Palmetto GBA.”

This could be bad news for hospitals – if your sleep center is not accredited by The Joint Commission’s Ambulatory Care Accreditation Program or one of the other approved accreditors (AASM and ACHC), your claims for services rendered past the above noted MAC-imposed deadlines may be denied. Enough to make hospital administrators, finance, and sleep lab managers toss and turn and lose sleep.

Facility accreditation is not the only credentialing requirement for sleep centers. Sleep centers must be under the supervision or direction of a physician who meets certain certification requirements. And there are also requirements for the credentials and training of sleep technologists and technicians. Hospital offering sleep testing should carefully review the requirements of their Medicare contractors and other payers. Here is a list of the various coverage policies for sleep testing /polysomnography of the MACs.