In October, Rep. Lewis Moore (R-OK), who serves on the Oklahoma State Legislature’s Public Health Committee, requested an informal hearing to discuss a study proposal addressing the cost of sleep studies and their impact on state health care expenditures. Currently, there is no policy for sleep services within Oklahoma’s “Health Choice” program – the health insurance program for Oklahoma state employees.
The hearing, which was conducted on Oct. 27, was opened by Rep. Moore asking the following questions:
- How to best provide quality sleep services for the 20,000 state employees?
- Can we do it better? Can we do it cheaper?
Dr. Norman Imes, Oklahoma physician and AASM Member, recommended using Medicare’s LCD rules as the framework for statewide sleep services. Dr. Imes communicated that most physicians who order sleep studies are familiar with the majority of the Medicare rules and guidelines for sleep diagnostics and equipment. Therefore, the use of existing Medicare rules will allow Health Choice physicians to easily understand and follow these rules if they are adopted. He previously provided Health Choice with several modifications of the Medicare rules that will make the LCDs user-friendly while potentially decreasing the number of sleep studies needed for patient evaluation.
After a thorough discussion by the group, it was decided that the following next steps would take place:
- Rep. Moore will meet with Health Choice to determine how sleep medicine is handled for state employees. He does not see the need to introduce any new legislation.
- Rep. Moore will also tour a sleep facility to fully understand the difference between a home sleep apnea test and an in-lab sleep study.
AASM will provide updates on this issue as they occur.
