Do DME companies with crazy stuff in their literature?
So I'm totally new here with only one night of CPAP under my belt. Forgive me, please, if I'm posting too much and repeating what everyone here already knows. I get obsessive when I'm working on something new, and CPAP is what I'm doing today...
Unlike (maybe) the average person, I read every page of every piece of literature I got with my CPAP machine. Frankly, I kind of ignore talking people who give canned presentations and rely later upon my own reading of the documentation to guide me on a lot of things. The "technician" who fitted my mask was a really nice guy, but couldn't answer my technical questions. Probably because I'm weird. This happens to me often.
What I was told wouldn't have instructed me to place the machine where the manufacturer suggests, so there's something to be said for RTFM. (My bedside table was higher than the mattress surface; my floor is carpeted and near a heater. Both are not acceptable!)
Anyway, the booklet from the DME (*not* the manual from the manufacturer of my device) is kind of insane. It has one or two pages of information specific to device maintenance and replacement parts, and then another 20 or so pages of unrelated garbage. Some of it, like "preventing falls in the home," is important for elderly folks, but seems copied direct from the internet. It also seems to assume I'm an octogenarian when I'm in my 40's...
Other bits, like an admonition to only use plastic cutting boards because "wood cutting boards are more prone to harboring bacteria", have been shown to be wrong. The US government recommended plastic back in the 1980 or 90's, but now it is acknowledged that wood can be just as safe. (Consumer Reports wrote about it in June 2018 if you want a source.)
Those details don't really matter here, but the blatant falsehood makes me distrust this "medical" provider. I suspect there's lots of this nonsense where durable medical equipment is concerned, but I'm going to send a letter to my health insurance company specifically pointing out *this* dissemination of wrong information by a provider to whom they sent me. I've already called them tonight, been hung up on once, and I'm afraid I tormented the second poor young man with my demands for detailed (written) information about my insurance coverage. Because their website is down tonight, too, and I wasn't willing to wait to get a list of alternate DME providers.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should state here that I now see a "direct medical care" physician for my own primary care. I got too fed up with the insurance system to tolerate it any more, and now I pay my doctor monthly as I do the cable and cell phone companies. He has time to see all of his patients for as long as each visit requires (and guarantees hospital visits if you're admitted, God forbid!) including offering house calls for a small extra fee if you're sick, and he answers email, calls, and texts himself, usually within minutes. I LOVE it, and it has pushed me toward the "direct care lobby" idea that our medical insurance should be more like our car insurance--for emergencies, not everyday stuff.
I'm really curious: do other DME's hand out poorly written, factually incorrect booklets with CPAP machines? Because... ARG!
--willo
(who rants better than she breathes during sleep, apparently)
Unlike (maybe) the average person, I read every page of every piece of literature I got with my CPAP machine. Frankly, I kind of ignore talking people who give canned presentations and rely later upon my own reading of the documentation to guide me on a lot of things. The "technician" who fitted my mask was a really nice guy, but couldn't answer my technical questions. Probably because I'm weird. This happens to me often.
What I was told wouldn't have instructed me to place the machine where the manufacturer suggests, so there's something to be said for RTFM. (My bedside table was higher than the mattress surface; my floor is carpeted and near a heater. Both are not acceptable!)
Anyway, the booklet from the DME (*not* the manual from the manufacturer of my device) is kind of insane. It has one or two pages of information specific to device maintenance and replacement parts, and then another 20 or so pages of unrelated garbage. Some of it, like "preventing falls in the home," is important for elderly folks, but seems copied direct from the internet. It also seems to assume I'm an octogenarian when I'm in my 40's...
Other bits, like an admonition to only use plastic cutting boards because "wood cutting boards are more prone to harboring bacteria", have been shown to be wrong. The US government recommended plastic back in the 1980 or 90's, but now it is acknowledged that wood can be just as safe. (Consumer Reports wrote about it in June 2018 if you want a source.)
Those details don't really matter here, but the blatant falsehood makes me distrust this "medical" provider. I suspect there's lots of this nonsense where durable medical equipment is concerned, but I'm going to send a letter to my health insurance company specifically pointing out *this* dissemination of wrong information by a provider to whom they sent me. I've already called them tonight, been hung up on once, and I'm afraid I tormented the second poor young man with my demands for detailed (written) information about my insurance coverage. Because their website is down tonight, too, and I wasn't willing to wait to get a list of alternate DME providers.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should state here that I now see a "direct medical care" physician for my own primary care. I got too fed up with the insurance system to tolerate it any more, and now I pay my doctor monthly as I do the cable and cell phone companies. He has time to see all of his patients for as long as each visit requires (and guarantees hospital visits if you're admitted, God forbid!) including offering house calls for a small extra fee if you're sick, and he answers email, calls, and texts himself, usually within minutes. I LOVE it, and it has pushed me toward the "direct care lobby" idea that our medical insurance should be more like our car insurance--for emergencies, not everyday stuff.
I'm really curious: do other DME's hand out poorly written, factually incorrect booklets with CPAP machines? Because... ARG!
--willo
(who rants better than she breathes during sleep, apparently)
. 
