Frequently Asked Questions regarding Home Oxygen 

Do I need a doctor’s pre­scrip­tion to receive oxy­gen therapy?
Oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tors are reg­u­lated by the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA) and a pre­scrip­tion from a physi­cian must be issued to receive oxy­gen ther­apy. Your physi­cian will order a blood test or oxime­try to deter­mine what your oxy­gen level is. The pre­scrip­tion will indi­cate the flow rate of how much oxy­gen you need per minute to bring your sat­u­ra­tion lev­els up to a healthy level (liters per minute or LPM) and when you need to use oxygen. 

What is Oxy­gen Therapy?
Oxy­gen ther­apy is usu­ally deliv­ered as a gas via an oxy­gen source such as a cylin­der or oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tor. The oxy­gen is breathed by the patient through a nasal can­nula (nasal prongs) or through a mask that cov­ers the mouth and nose. A nasal can­nula is a two-pronged device inserted in the nos­trils and is con­nected to the tub­ing car­ry­ing the oxy­gen. The tub­ing can rest on the ears or be attached to eye­glass frames.  

Will Medicare or pri­vate insur­ance cover some or all of my oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tor costs?
If your physi­cian has pre­scribed oxy­gen ther­apy and you are eli­gi­ble for Part B cov­er­age Medicare will cover your rental, Medicare will help pay for sys­tems that fur­nish oxy­gen, oxy­gen stor­age con­tain­ers, tub­ing and related sup­plies and oxy­gen con­tents. Medicare’s cov­er­age poli­cies vary slightly from region to region, but gen­er­ally Medicare Part B pro­vides ben­e­fits at 80% of allow­able charges. The patient is respon­si­ble for the remain­ing 20%, either directly or through their pri­vate health insur­ance pol­icy. Pri­vate insur­ance car­ri­ers vary even more. Call your insur­ance agent to clar­ify exactly what your pol­icy pays towards home oxy­gen therapy. 

Can I use a portable oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tor in my car?
Yes, there are newly designed portable oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tors on the mar­ket like the SeQual Eclipse or Invacare Solo 2 One that are per­fect for auto­mo­bile travel. You can use recharge­able bat­ter­ies or sim­ply plug the unit into the car’s acces­sory out­let (lighter). The Eclipse or Invacare Solo 2 portable oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tors can be placed out of the way, behind the front seat, allow­ing you to travel freely. 

Can I take a portable oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tor on an airplane?
Yes, the Fed­eral Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion (FAA) has approved a select group of portable oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tors for air travel, includ­ing the Invacare Solo 2 One and the SeQual Eclipse. Be cer­tain to check with your air car­rier first because not all air­lines allow portable oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tors onboard. Check with your air­lines web­site to see if they allow these units and what their require­ments are. Most air car­ri­ers have a form that must be filled out prior to depar­ture and must include your physician’s pre­scrip­tion.
Visit the travel page for medical oxygen that will direct you to each air­line regard­ing oxy­gen on airplanes. 

What are the ben­e­fits of oxy­gen therapy?
Numer­ous stud­ies have shown that patients who use sup­ple­men­tal oxy­gen live longer and have more active lives than indi­vid­u­als not receiv­ing oxy­gen. Oxy­gen ther­apy is based on the premise that all human cells require suf­fi­cient lev­els of oxy­gen to func­tion prop­erly. Exer­cise is often eas­ier for indi­vid­u­als receiv­ing sup­ple­men­tal oxy­gen because more oxy­gen is get­ting to the mus­cles. Receiv­ing oxy­gen also helps to reverse the long-term effects of oxy­gen defi­ciency on the heart. Oxy­gen ther­apy has also been known reduce sleep dis­rup­tion while also improv­ing con­cen­tra­tion and mem­ory levels. 

Can oxy­gen in my nose get in even when I have clogged sinuses?
That depends on the degree of obstruction/sinus con­ges­tion. If the nasal pas­sages are com­pletely swollen/blocked, a can­nula might not be as effec­tive but if your sinuses are con­gested a lit­tle, you are likely breath­ing more through your mouth, then the oxy­gen going into the nasal pas­sages will be pulled into the lungs by the air com­ing in through the mouth. I have seen patients put their can­nula in their mouth, but that does not usu­ally make the deliv­ery of oxy­gen to the lungs any more effective. 

Bub­ble humid­i­fier and why is it not recommended?
Humid­i­fier bot­tles are not likely the cause of health prob­lems if users fol­low manufacture’s direc­tions. This means emp­ty­ing left-over water after each use, as well as clean­ing and dis­in­fect­ing the water reser­voir on a daily basis.Humidifier bot­tles may con­tribute to health effects if water is left sit­ting from one use to the next because:

• Bac­te­ria can col­lect and mul­ti­ply in sit­ting water
• A bub­ble humid­i­fier does not boil water so it can­not kill bacteria.

The Bac­te­ria spores could make mat­ters worse for peo­ple who already have a dif­fi­culty breath­ing, par­ti­cles may be released into the air when they are filled with tap water it is per­fered patients used dis­tilled water.These par­ti­cles are made of the same mate­ri­als that cause the build up scale inside ket­tles and are con­sid­ered harm­less to most peo­ple. How­ever, if tap water is used in the humid­i­fier con­tains toxic sub­stances, there is a risk they can be harm­ful to the patient and cause water born illness’s.

 If Oxy­gen Is Pre­scribed with CPAP?
If your doc­tor has pre­scribed oxy­gen to use with your CPAP, instruc­tions will be given to you on where to place the oxy­gen tub­ing on your CPAP circuit.

Have you heard any information that you may not believe or would like more information about?
We recommend: COMMON MYTHS REGARDING OXYGEN THERAPY By John R. Goodman, BS RRT located in the February/March Newsletter on the National Home Oxygen Patients Association website: www.homeoxygen.org