Welcome to NAMDRC

About NAMDRC

Established over three decades ago, the National Association for Medical Direction of Respiratory Care (NAMDRC) is a national organization of physicians whose mission is to educate its members and address regulatory, legislative and payment issues that relate to the delivery of healthcare to patients with respiratory disorders.

NAMDRC members, all physicians, work in close to 2,000 hospitals nationwide, primarily in respiratory care departments and critical/intensive care units. They also have responsibilities for sleep labs, management of blood gas laboratories, pulmonary rehabilitation services, and other respiratory related services.

For more than a quarter of a century NAMDRC has emphasized quality patient care. The Association is dedicated to providing support for pulmonologists and other physicians who provide clinical and management leadership in respiratory, critical care and sleep medicine. Specifically, NAMDRC focuses on issues of importance to the individual practitioner, as well as a range of pulmonary related care services including:

  • Pulmonary medicine
  • Critical Care
  • Ventilator Management
  • Pulmonary rehabilitation
  • Respiratory Care
  • Pulmonary physiology assessments
  • Sleep disorders
  • Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO)
  • Respiratory home health care
  • Long term respiratory care services

Your Advocate

NAMDRC has won praise with its track record with government agencies, most notably the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The majority of NAMDRC members agree that NAMDRC’s voice before regulatory agencies and legislators has been the #1 reason for belonging to and continuing membership. NAMDRC has been a successful advocate on these issues:

  • Obtaining a change in the Medicare physician update, resulting in an increase, rather than a decrease, in the conversion factor used to determine payments to physicians;
  • Securing new CPT codes for placement of tracheal and bronchial stents, placement of additional stents in another main bronchus, endobroncial ultrasound, and high altitude simulation testing (HAST) and HAST with oxygen titration;
  • Increasing the work valve for Transbronchial Needle Aspiration biopsies;
  • Working to secure Medicare coverage of smoking cessation counseling; and
  • Collaborating to assist CMS in better defining critical care services and teaching physicians’ documentation of these services.

Additionally NAMDRC’s advocacy focuses on issues of immediate importance to you and your patients. For example:

  • NAMDRC continues to monitor closely changes in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and the current five (5) year review of selected pulmonary related codes;
  • NAMDRC also monitors development of pay-for-performance models;
  • NAMDRC continues to push for adoption of a national coverage policy for pulmonary rehabilitation;
  • NAMDRC advocates a change in Medicare policy to ensure that home oxygen patients receive the delivery system most appropriate for the patient’s needs; and
  • In response to NAMDRC pressure, the FAA has published a final ruling that will make airline travel easier for oxygen patients.


NAMDRC
8618 Westwood Center Drive Suite 210
Vienna, VA 22182-2222 		Phone: 703-752-4359
Fax: 703-752-4360
E-Mail: ExecOffice@namdrc.org