Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy - Hyperbaric Chamber Information ...

Marketing status of the device
The Hyox monoplace unit was listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods
(ARTG) on 27 July 1995 as AUST L 53179 (TGAIN approval No. 66805). Multiplace
chamber, as fixed installations, are exempted from listing on the ARTG.
Current reimbursement arrangement
Medicare Benefits Schedule item numbers 13020, 13025, 13030 cover hyperbaric oxygen
therapy performed in a comprehensive hyperbaric medicine facility. 9 There are also two
item numbers (18022 and 18026) which cover administration of an anaesthetic during
hyperbaric therapy where the medical practitioner is or is not confined in the chamber
(including the administration of oxygen).
For the purposes of these items, a comprehensive hyperbaric medicine facility is defined
in the Schedule as “a separate hospital area that, on a 24 hour basis:
(a) is equipped and staffed so that it is capable of providing to a patient:
– hyperbaric oxygen therapy at a treatment pressure of at least 2.8 atmospheric
pressure absolute (180 kPa gauge pressure); and
– mechanical ventilation and invasive cardiovascular monitoring within a
multiplace chamber for the duration of the hyperbaric treatment.
(b) is supported by:
– at least one specialist anaesthetist, consultant physician or medical
practitioner who holds the Diploma of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine of
the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society (SPUMS) who is rostered and
immediately available to the hyperbaric facility during normal working hours;
– a registered medical practitioner who is present in the hospital and
immediately available to the facility at all times when patients are being
treated at the hyperbaric facility; and
– a registered nurse with specific training in hyperbaric patient care to the
published standards of the Hyperbaric Technicians and Nurses Association
who is present during hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
(c) has defined admission and discharge policies.”
There is also a regulation (Regulation 14 of the Health Insurance Regulations 1975)
precluding payment of Medicare benefits for professional services rendered in relation to
the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Medicare benefit payments were limited to services performed in comprehensive
hyperbaric medical facilities because of concerns about standards of patient selection and
management and staff supervision and training in monoplace-only hyperbaric facilities
which were managed by health professionals other than medical practitioners.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy 5