Your Medicare Coverage

Is my test, item, or service covered?

Oxygen therapy

How often is it covered?

Medicare Part B (Medical Insurance) covers the rental of oxygen equipment as durable medical equipment (DME). If you own your own equipment, Medicare will help pay for oxygen contents and supplies for the delivery of oxygen when all of these conditions are met:

  • Your doctor says you have a severe lung disease or you’re not getting enough oxygen
  • Your health might improve with oxygen therapy
  • Your arterial blood gas level falls within a certain range
  • Other alternative measures have failed

Under the above conditions, Medicare helps pay for:

  • Systems for furnishing oxygen
  • Containers that store oxygen
  • Tubing and related supplies for the delivery of oxygen and oxygen contents

Who's eligible?

All people with Medicare are covered.

Your costs in Original Medicare

You pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount. Medicare pays for different kinds of DME in different ways: some equipment may be rented, other equipment may be purchased, and you may choose to rent or buy some equipment.

Medicare pays suppliers a monthly fee for providing all medically necessary oxygen and oxygen equipment, including accessories and supplies like tubing or a mouthpiece. After 36 months of continuous use, Medicare stops making rental payments for the oxygen equipment, but, in almost all circumstances, you'll continue to get the oxygen equipment, accessories, and supplies from the same supplier with no rental charge until the end of the reasonable useful lifetime of the oxygen equipment (generally 5 years after the date that the equipment was delivered to you).

Medicare will only cover your DME if your doctor or supplier is enrolled in Medicare. If a DME supplier doesn't accept assignment, Medicare doesn't limit how much the supplier can charge you. You may also have to pay the entire bill (your share and Medicare's share) at the time you get the DME.

Competitive Bidding Program

If you live in certain areas, you may be affected by Medicare's Competitive Bidding Program. In most cases, if you have Original Medicare and get program items in program areas, Medicare will only help pay for these items if they're provided by contract suppliers. 

If you've been renting your equipment for 27 to 35 months and you switch to a Medicare-contract supplier, you may have to pay for renting the equipment for a few months longer than expected (from one to nine months beyond the 36 month period) before your rental payments stop. This will result in additional months of coinsurance. However, the amount you pay will be lower than before because the amount you'll pay will be based on the new payment rates under the competitive bidding program. Talk with your new supplier about how this affects you.

If you've been renting your equipment for 36 months, you don't need to do anything. Your current supplier must continue to provide your equipment at no additional rental charge until the equipment needs to be replaced because it has reached the end of its reasonable useful lifetime. When your old equipment needs to be replaced because it's too old, you must get replacement equipment from a contract supplier.

Find a Medicare-contract supplier in your area.

Note

If you’re already renting certain equipment that's paid on a monthly basis when the program starts, you may be able to stay with your current supplier. Suppliers that aren't Medicare-contract suppliers can decide to become "grandfathered" suppliers for certain rented items and supplies, like CPAP devices, oxygen, and oxygen supplies. 

If a "grandfathered" supplier rented the equipment to you at the time the program started, Medicare will pay for the supplier to continue to rent to you. You may continue using that supplier until the rental period for your equipment ends.

If you start renting additional equipment from a "grandfathered" supplier after the program started in your area, Medicare won't pay for the new equipment.

If you’re renting equipment that’s eligible for grandfathering, your supplier will let you know in writing 30 business days before the program begins whether it will or won’t become a "grandfathered" supplier.

Related resources

Return to search results