San Diego

Nine HME manufacturers have teamed up to create the Sleep Manufacturers Alliance, designed to be an advocate for issues related to sleep-disordered breathing.

Manufacturers in the group include Embla (formerly MedCare), Fisher & Paykel, Invacare, Pro-Tech, Puritan Bennett, ResMed, Respironics, Sunrise Medical and Viasys.

At its first meeting, the alliance identified major goals:

• identifying continuum of care models that could be used with both Medicare and commercial payers to improve the overall awareness of sleep-disordered breathing;

• providing planners at the American College of Chest Physicians Sleep Institute a list of issues that are important for the ACCP Sleep Institute to address at its September conference; and

• developing educational materials for alliance customers regarding CMS' proposed rules for competitive bidding and its impact.

The group also submitted comments to CMS regarding the proposed rule for competitive bidding relating to sleep-disordered breathing.