This is a question just out of curiosity and no one here may know the answers but what the heck, I'll ask anyway. How do oxygen supply companies come up with the costs of LOX that they charge. Obviously they have responsibility for the hard assets including reservoirs and the helios and marathons and I recognise these are expensive. Is this the number 1 expense for them? What about the LOX itself? I find it curious that the charge is the same regardless of how often a patient needs a refill. In our area they service some people weekly, others every two weeks and others every three weeks but it appears the charge to each is the same. It seems that if the LOX itself was major driver of the overall cost then they should charge by volume or fill. And how much of the cost are the service people. Again I am charged the same regardless of frequency of delivery and am even charged when on an extended vacation of as much as two months.
I guess my point is that it appears that they charge on some type of mass average or worst case scenario rather on the real cost of servicing and given patient. Makes me wonder how much of Medicares pressure to reduce costs is the result of questionable business practices by the suppliers in the 1st place.
Again this is just my curiosity, with all of the challenges to getting access to LOX I am trying yo better understand all of the issues including the economics.