• Sreelatha Naik, Moh'd Al-Halawani, Iouri Kreinin, and Meir Kryger.
• Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Geisinger Health System, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
• J Clin Sleep Med. 2019 Feb 15; 15 (2): 245-251.

Study ObjectivesCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement for positive airway pressure (PAP) devices for obstructive sleep apnea treatment is dependent on patients meeting adherence expectations within the first 3 months on therapy. Adherence is defined as usage of the device for at least 4 hours per night on 70% of nights during a consecutive 30-day period. We hypothesize that the adherence pattern may be established beyond this initial period, which may limit the opportunity to treat many patients.MethodsTreatment and adherence data from PAP devices were monitored via wireless modems for 42 consecutive PAP-naïve military veterans who completed 1 year of nightly monitoring. Their baseline characteristics were as follows: age (mean ± standard deviation) 58.5 ± 12.5 years; body mass index 33.7 ± 5.7 kg/m2; diagnostic apnea-hypopnea index (pretreatment) 28.1 ± 18.5 events/h; apnea-hypopnea index on PAP: 4.3 ± 3.3 events/h. We examined daily, monthly, quarterly, semiannual, and annual reports, and the best 30-day adherence report for each quarter.ResultsIn the first 3 months, 19 of 42 participants were adherent by CMS criteria, and 23 of 42 participants were not. Of the 19 adherent participants, 13 remained adherent and 6 became nonadherent or stopped PAP treatment for the remainder of the year. In the 23 initially nonadherent participants, 16 stopped PAP treatment, and 7 participants (30.4%) became adherent (using CMS criteria) during the rest of the year. Thus, PAP adherence during the first 3 months was predictive for the rest of the year in only 68.4%. PAP nonadherence during the first 3 months was predictive for further nonadherence in only 69.6% of the cases. Overall, this led to a 65% sensitivity and 72% specificity of using adherence at 3 months in predicting adherence at 1 year.ConclusionsCMS adherence criteria affecting PAP coverage are restrictive and can result in the withholding of therapy in many patients who otherwise might become adherent.Clinical Trial RegistrationRegistry: ClinicalTrials.gov, Title: Remote Monitoring in Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Identifier: NCT01678560, URL: https:// clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01678560.© 2019 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

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