According to specialists from the National Health Insurance Fund (VLK), this decision will reduce the financial burden on patients and help avoid severe consequences of untreated disease, according to the institution’s press release to the media.
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After the Minister of Health signed the order, from July 24 this year, these devices are included in the list of medical devices rented with funds from the Compulsory Health Insurance Fund.
Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most common forms of sleep disorders, where breathing periodically stops or becomes very shallow during sleep. As a result, a person does not get enough rest, feels constant fatigue, daytime sleepiness, has difficulty concentrating, and over time the risk of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes, and other health disorders increases.
Continuous positive airway pressure oxygen devices (CPAP or autoCPAP) will be prescribed to patients diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea through polysomnography and identified as having moderate or severe disease. These devices ensure continuous positive pressure in the airways, keeping them open during sleep so the person can breathe normally.
“For many patients, oxygen therapy significantly improves quality of life – daytime sleepiness decreases, sleep quality improves, work capacity and overall well-being get better. Until now, many people had to purchase or rent these devices at their own expense, so treatment was not accessible to everyone. This decision creates opportunities for more patients to receive timely treatment and avoid disease-related complications,” says Giedrius Baranauskas, Head of the Medical Devices Reimbursement Department at VLK.
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According to the Lithuanian Society of Pulmonologists and Allergologists and the Lithuanian Society of Pulmonologists, there may be about 600 new cases of moderate and severe obstructive sleep apnea in Lithuania where patients require treatment with oxygen devices.
It is planned that the appropriateness of prescribing such devices will be assessed by a medical council of secondary or tertiary level healthcare institutions, which will include at least one pulmonologist or neurologist. Devices can only be prescribed by those healthcare institutions that have the capability to perform polysomnography and confirm the diagnosis during the examination.
According to VLK calculations, the base monthly rental price for one oxygen device prescribed for sleep apnea treatment will exceed 54 euros, and the annual fund expenses will amount to about 391 thousand euros.
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