Good People of Clusterville,

Great News!  The Geisinger Center for Clinical Studies in Wyoming Valley, near Wilkes-Barre, PA, is now taking enrollment for a new study of oxygen therapy for cluster headaches.  This study will compare the results at a flow rate of 15 liters/minute with a new method of aborting cluster headaches administered by oxygen demand valve at respiration rates that support hyperventilation.

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This is the study Michael Berger, Royce Fishman, and I started working on in late 2007.  Dr. Todd Rozen, MD, Geisinger Neurosciences Institute is the Principal Investigator.

I drove up to the Geisinger Center for Clinical Studies in November to train members of the staff that will be supporting this study.  They're ready.

I'm confident that when the results of this study come out they'll generate a lot more interest and exposure on the use of oxygen therapy as an abortive for the cluster headache.  Cluster headache sufferers are going to need it...

Now for the Bad News...  On 4 January 2011, the bureaucrats and bean counters at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published their Coverage Determination on the use of oxygen therapy for cluster headaches, stating: "the evidence does not demonstrate that the home use of oxygen to treat cluster headache improves health outcomes in Medicare beneficiaries with cluster headache (CH). Therefore, we determine that home use of oxygen to treat CH is not reasonable and necessary under §1862(a)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act (the Act)."

See how your tax dollars were spent at the following link:

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I won't politicize this action by CMS any further, but a civil email or phone call to your Senators and Representative pointing out what this means to you as a cluster headache sufferer is in order. 

You also need to understand that many medical insurance companies use CMS Coverage Determinations to set their own coverage policies and that this action by CMS has a high probability of making it even more difficult to obtain oxygen therapy.

Take care,

V/R, Batch