Does Medicare Part A cover oxygen machines?

1 answer | Last updated: Oct 21, 2009
foleydavid asked...
Does Medicare Part A cover oxygen machines? It would be for a 67 year old patient.
 

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Joseph L. Matthews is a Caring.com senior editor, an attorney, and the author of Long-Term Care: How to Plan & Pay for It...
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Medicare Part A covers all necessary medical care, including an oxygen machine, while someone is an inpatient in a hospital, skilled nursing facility or rehabilitation facility.

But it sounds like See also:
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See all 155 questions about What Medicare Covers
you're interested in whether Medicare covers the use of an oxygen machine at home. The answer is yes, but under Medicare Part B rather than Part A. If home-use oxygen equipment is prescribed by a doctor to treat severe lung disease, other oxygen deprivation, or an arterial blood gas level condition, Medicare Part B can cover it. Be aware, though, that Medicare Part B will cover oxygen therapy at home only if other treatment methods have been tried and failed.

If Medicare Part B covers home oxygen equipment, the patient has to rent it from a Medicare-approved medical equipment supplier. The supplier will also sell the oxygen itself, as well as supplies for delivery of the oxygen therapy at home.

Medicare Part B pays 80 percent of the Medicare-approved amount for the rental of the equipment and the purchase of the oxygen and supplies.

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