(07-25-2015, 01:28 PM)PaulaO2 Wrote: ...They'd never dare ask that a diabetic be re-diagnosed. Or a person with high blood pressure come off all meds and have a stress test to make sure they still have it. Yet we must dance this dance. And it is THEM who have to pay for it! Which further makes it frustrating! WHY!? Once that machine is paid for, the mask and supplies are minimal compared to what a diabetic's supplies are! Arrgghh!...
To help underline your point (hopefully), has anyone ever heard of a SA sufferer who was cured? The xPAP therapy is not a cure, although it abates SA events usually to the benefit of the patient to the point that they have normal breathing. It does a remarkable job of that, and is minimally invasive. Few "cures" have either of those benefits. The point here being that without the machine, people who obviously are not cured by a machine that relieves their malady
will continue to need a machine. Period.
So if a patient has OSA, gets xPAP therapy, and then needs a new machine at the 5-11 year mark, is there any question whether they really still need the machine? Only if they lost significant weight, would be my guess, and that is something directly on the record, so is not in question. I suspect quite strongly that
the only reason they need a sleep test is because it is such a tempting profit center for the sleep doc.
But, ferchrissake, doc,
AT LEAST cut those who can't wrangle that through insurance a break. To not do that, and to soak them for the cost, is just plain reprehensible. I know your kids need to go to private school, but the patients' kids need to eat.
