Can ObamaCare Cover Mold Remediation?

Green Cleaning For Health: Does It Work as a Business Niche for Cleaning and Restoration Contractors?

By Michael A. Pinto, CSP, CMP

The one term has been around for more than half a century while the other is only about a decade old, but both expressions suffer from a continuing identity crisis. Green cleaning is a movement that started during the counterculture 1960’s in an attempt to save the planet. In contrast, cleaning for health (often designated by the shorthand abbreviation C4H) is a specialized approach that embodies the last ten years of cleaning concepts that have been developing since prehistoric times. Today, these two familiar but vague terms are increasingly being heard in the same sentence.

The best place to start is to clarify the definitions. Quite bluntly, the terms green cleaning and cleaning for health are used so often in such a variety of contexts that for many people they are essentially meaningless. While many explanations of green cleaning can be found, the one used by the ISSA (an international organization that bills itself as The Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association) is based on descriptions found in U.S. government Executive Orders:

Use of those products and services that have a lesser or reduced impact on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services

Cleaning for health also has many variations. The one promoted by Healthy Schools Network, Inc. is comprehensive yet succinct: Cleaning that protects public health without harming the health of the staff, building occupants, or the environment.

Combining the two descriptions finally gets us to a clear understanding of the concept of green cleaning for health:

Cleaning that protects public health without harming the health of the staff, building occupants, or the environment, by using products and services that have a lesser or reduced impact on human health and the environment when compared with competing products or services.

An Expanded Market is Developing in Front of Our Eyes, Yet Few Have Seen It

Although it may be interesting for a cleaning or restoration contractor to know about these terms, a better question to consider is whether it is important for a professional in this industry to be knowledgeable about green cleaning for health. Surprisingly, the answer to that question is currently being heavily influenced by politics. The U.S. health care regulations commonly known as ObamaCare define ten basic types of services as “essential benefits” that insurance companies must provide for customers. One of those essential benefits is Preventive and Wellness Services and Chronic Disease Management. The ObamaCare rules also open up the description of providers for essential benefits such that certain classes of treatment are no longer restricted to licensed medical professionals.

In practical terms, this means that under ObamaCare there is now room for restoration contractors to be covered for certain environmental services by health insurance providers (as compared to digging for coverage under the property insurance providers that have been tightening down on restoration efforts for years).

New Approach Driven By an Explosion in Childhood Asthma

For this adjustment we can thank asthma specialists (and their lobbyists), as they were some of the most vocal advocates of loosening the definition of service provider for wellness services and disease management.

Asthma is a huge problem in the United States, with sufferers having problems at younger and younger ages. The experts know that improved medical care (i.e., treating symptoms) only goes so far. As a result, there was great pressure to rewrite the definition of approved service provider to allow for coverage of environmental factors. The reality of asthma management is that the best outcomes are seen when medical intervention is matched with a reduction in the source of allergens—thorough cleaning in a way that does not introduce other sensitizers or triggers. Sounds a lot like green cleaning for health.

Cleaning and Restoration Contractors Need to be Forward Thinking

Right now, getting a good return on investing in green cleaning for health is a struggle. Cost is the choke point since sick people who could benefit immensely from a thorough green cleaning often cannot afford it. Nevertheless, cleaning and restoration contractors should begin pushing the envelope to clarify the responsibility of health insurers to cover the cost of specialized cleaning of homes and workplaces by educating all segments of the market.

These educational efforts should take emerging trends into consideration. Several key trends:

1. Population is graying and requiring more medical services
2. People are more health conscious
3. Building certification programs such as LEED are changing their rules to favor green cleaning and putting as much emphasis on public health as on energy conservation
4. CIRI/ISSA has a new cleaning standard for schools K-12
5. New superbugs are spreading
6. Obamacare gives new latitude to which service providers must be covered

The ultimate goal of this education is to develop a patient recovery team that includes an environmental restoration professional. In many cases it will be clear to the entire team that having a doctor prescribe green cleaning for health will not only assist the patient, but save money in the long run. At that point we will be able to say the same thing to sick people that we say to those who suffer from a fire or other structural loss: “We can make it better, we promise.”

Can #ObamaCare Cover #Mold Remediation? @moldsensitized http://t.co/ysLzSkxZMf PL RT

— Mold Sensitized (@moldsensitized) March 27, 2015