Does Insurance Pay for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a process in which patients are exposed to oxygen under increased atmospheric pressure in order to increase the oxygen content in the blood. Medicare and most commercial insurance companies will pay for hyperbaric oxygen therapy, though coverage may depend on the condition being treated.

Medicare and most commercial insurance companies will pay for hyperbaric oxygen therapy, though coverage may depend on the condition being treated.

Patients usually need prior authorization before treatment, and the out-of-pocket expenses vary depending on the individual insurance company’s plan. 

Medicare Part B may cover hyperbaric oxygen therapy, if the therapy is administered in a chamber and patients have one of the following conditions: 

• Acute carbon monoxide intoxication
• Decompression illness
• Gas embolism
• Gas gangrene
• Restricted blood supply to limbs due to injury (acute traumatic peripheral ischemia)
• Crush injuries and suturing of severed limbs
• Progressive necrotizing infections
• Acute peripheral arterial insufficiency
• Preparation and preservation of compromised skin grafts
• Chronic treatment-resistant bone infection (osteomyelitis), unresponsive to conventional medical and surgical management
• Osteoradionecrosis (a complication of radiation therapy) as an adjunct to conventional treatment
• Soft tissue radionecrosis as an adjunct to conventional treatment
• Cyanide poisoning
• Actinomycosis (a rare bacterial infection, often of the head and neck), only as an adjunct to conventional therapy when the disease process is resistant to antibiotics and surgical treatment
• Diabetic wounds of the lower extremities if all of these apply: 
  1. The patient has type 1 or type 2 diabetes and has a lower extremity wound that’s due to diabetes
  2. The patient has a wound classified as Wagner grade III or higher
  3. The patient has failed an adequate course of standard wound therapy