Government cuts in Medicare are doing more than slashing costs; they are cutting off the air supply to millions of elderly Americans.

As a part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, the federal government is capping Medicare benefits for portable oxygen tanks and concentrators. Concentrators are home machines that extract pure oxygen from the air. The cap will mean that people currently on oxygen will become responsible for maintenance, repairs and replacement of their existing equipment.

The American Association for Homecare says that the typical Medicare home oxygen beneficiary is a woman in her 70s who suffers from late-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and as a consequence has severe low levels of oxygen in her blood. Approximately 12 million Americans have been diagnosed with COPD, and an additional 12 million more remain undiagnosed.

Providers of oxygen and oxygen-related supplies are in a section of health care known as Durable Medical Equipment.

Barry Watson, with DME provider AlternaCare on West Okmulgee Avenue, said the public has not been fully informed about what’s about to hit.

“The average person has no clue this is happening,” he said. “It’s going to affect a lot of people. They make decisions like this on Capitol Hill, and the public doesn’t find out about it until later.”

Watson said he is worried about what will happen when Medicare no longer pays for servicing and maintenance of those concentrators after 36 months.

“Rental of the oxygen concentrator pays for a lot of the extra costs that are limited by Medicare,” he said. “For portable oxygen tanks, we are allowed $55 a month (per patient). A lot of our patients go through that in a week. So the rest comes out of the rental of the concentrator. We have patients who cost us $100 to $150 a month in tank rentals.”

When the cap comes down in January 2009, Watson said it will immediately change lives.

“What’s going to happen is that there will have to be a limit, and these patients will not be able to get out of their house as much as they want to,” he said.

Watson said that when concentrator service is limited, patients may not have any warning of faulty performance.

“Right now, every 30 days we are doing our concentrator checks as a service,” he said. “What will happen now is that unless the patients can pay companies to come out, they won’t know how efficient the concentrator is or how pure the oxygen is. Until it’s too late.”

Watson said he’s concerned that only human suffering will motivate the government to carefully consider the Medicare cuts.

“What I’m afraid of is that what will be required for this situation to change is for someone to get really sick or die,” he said.