NPB promoting Telesurveillance oxygen concentrator/monitor as solution to upcoming Medicare cuts.

NPB OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR/TELEMONITOR SYSTEM'S COST-SAVING POTENTIAL is being highlighted by Nellcor Puritan Bennett. The company says its Telesurveillance system, introduced Oct. 7 at MedTrade '97 in New Orleans, can save money for home care providers by reducing visits to patients, ensuring compliance with oxygen therapy prescriptions, and allowing more patients to receive care in their homes.

The Telesurveillance, which combines NPB's Companion 590 oxygen concentrator with telemonitoring equipment, is the first two-way oxygen telemonitor on the market, NPB says.

Sales literature touts the Telesurveillance as "the only monitoring system of its kind that records patient oxygen therapy prescription compliance information." It highlights the system's ability to produce "periodic reports" which "assure caregivers and payers that the device is delivering therapeutic oxygen and that patients are complying with their prescription" and the software's ability to keep "records of liquid oxygen refills [that] further confirms patient's compliance."

NPB is positioning the telemonitoring system as an answer to upcoming cuts in Medicare reimbursements for oxygen therapy. Payment will be reduced by 25% on Jan. 1, and by another 5% the following year. The cuts present home health care providers with the challenge of compensating for losses "without cutting back on staff or services," NPB notes.

Telesurveillance includes a Hewlett Packard Vectra computer system, Telesurveillance 2.0.0 software, and a NPB's Companion 590 oxygen concentrator equipped with an oxygen concentrator indicator. The company reports that several orders already have been placed for the system, which can be leased or purchased outright.