At the start 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) turned down an application for a unique HCPCS code for thermal fuses that campaigners argue would have led to wider national adoption of the devices.
In September 2025, 17 representatives of the fire safety, burn care and academic communities — including burns victims and survivors of home oxygen fires — wrote to the CMS calling on it to reconsider the decision.
The open letter, led by Ray Reynolds, Chair of the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Home Oxygen Therapy Fire Working Group, argues that the CMS rationale — that thermal fuses are already covered under the existing monthly bundled payment for oxygen services — does not reflect the economic reality facing medical oxygen providers (DMEs).
Two-thirds of DMEs do not currently install the devices, with the letter arguing that expecting them to be covered by the existing reimbursement bundle is unrealistic.
The letter also highlights a 2024 study published in the Journal of Burn Care & Research estimating that a federal policy providing thermal fuses to all U.S. home oxygen patients would generate societal savings of $305.40 million over ten years, including avoided medical costs and property damage.
