Public policies for the coverage of continuous positive airway pressure devices for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea

The latest prevalence estimates of OSA show that up to 3.5% of middle-age women and 5% of middle-age men have a symptomatic form of the illness. In adults, the standard treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. Québec’s Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) asked the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) to produce a summary of the different existing management models in Canada and the rest of the world and to estimate the direct costs that instituting public coverage of positive airway pressure therapy for OSA would generate.