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<strong>CMS</strong>-1403-FC<br />

is associated with a ten-fold increased risk of motor<br />

vehicle accidents.<br />

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is<br />

prescribed by physicians to treat OSA. The patient wears a<br />

face mask that provides air pressure to help keep the<br />

breathing passages open during sleep. The purpose is to<br />

prevent the collapse of the oropharyngeal walls and thereby<br />

prevent the obstruction to airflow during sleep, which<br />

occurs in OSA. <strong>This</strong> treatment is generally continued for<br />

the rest of the patient’s life.<br />

In 2006, Medicare spent approximately $750 million for<br />

the diagnosis and treatment of OSA. Sixty five percent of<br />

those expenditures represent the amount Medicare spent on<br />

diagnostic related costs of OSA using attended<br />

facility-based polysomnography (PSG). The remaining $260<br />

million represents the amount spent on treatment related<br />

costs associated with the CPAP.<br />

Stakeholders in the sleep community suggest that OSA<br />

is currently underdiagnosed and that the numbers of persons<br />

using of CPAP will rapidly grow with greater public<br />

awareness and the convenient availability of in home<br />

testing. It is difficult to precisely estimate the<br />

ultimate growth because the true proportion of undiagnosed<br />

beneficiaries is unknown, and the current stakeholder<br />

725

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