NYS bill would require Medicaid to pay for oxygen wound treatment
Parker, Ortiz: Treatment crucial to Brooklyn residents
Photos of the injuries are stomach-churning: gaping wounds on the bottom of diabetic patients’ feet, amputations that never close, skin ulcers that fail to heal.
On Wednesday, state officials announced legislation that would require the state to continue paying for a medical treatment currently used to treat severe, non-healing wounds of the type common in diabetes.
Known as topical oxygen wound therapy (TOWT), the treatment is used only when standard treatments have failed for at least 30 days.
Medicaid has covered its use since 2008, but in December 2013, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) announced that coverage would be discontinued.