[Equipment] DME GAVE ME APAP THAT HAD BEEN HEAVILY USED?

[plakky]

Superstar - My DME is 100 miles away from my town and everything has been handled over the phone and by mail/shipping.  Only started the CPAP journey last January and everything was pretty locked down in my state, but that is where my medical facility requested my CPAP machine and original mask even though my online research showed a few DME's closer to me, so assume "closest" doesn't really need to be an issue...?

[Superstar]

Superstar - My DME is 100 miles away from my town and everything has been handled over the phone and by mail/shipping.  Only started the CPAP journey last January and everything was pretty locked down in my state, but that is where my medical facility requested my CPAP machine and original mask even though my online research showed a few DME's closer to me, so assume "closest" doesn't really need to be an issue...?

That is really valuable information. I am sitting here feeling rather like an idiot. I took the referral info, the DME info at face value...no questions asked.  Hubby has alway called me "a cockeyed optimist."

[SarcasticDave94]

I'm pretty sure the DME would be asking for your Medicare card first thing. Call me a bit skeptical, but something stinks a bit here at that DME.

Probably good to check your Nike shoe laces and get ready to run.

Homework: call both your insurances and ask for several "nearby" DME's in-network. Call those contacts and ask about Medicare acceptance.

[plakky]

I thought some of the posters on this forum were exaggerating with the many negative opinions I read about DME's.  Finding myself having to remind the DME supervisor that not only was I a customer, I was also a medical patient, felt ridiculous, but I had only been treated with care and warmth in medical situations previous to dealing wih the CPAP industry. If you worked in a hospital for 45 years, I can only imagine your disbelief.  You really need to be your own advocate.  This forum provides invaluable support  I have found nowhere else.

[Sleeprider]

The medical mafia is a term we often use here. The current leader and supporter of the Mafia in the sleep disordered breathing arena is Philips Respironics that has a policy patients should not have access to their own data, so they encrypted it in their new machines, making you dependent on your doctor. For years they have held out incentives for exclusive distributorships, sleep lab endorsements and physician prescriptions. It is a cut-throat world of profit over patient rights and access to information. Your DME is just a link in the food-chain that attempts to maximize patient costs without regard to how they are treated. So you got a 2-year old machine that was previously paid for by rental and loaning to countless individuals, and now needs to by cycled out for purchase by an unknowing and unempowered patient. The only problem with this scenario is you knew how to access the clinician menu that should have been top-secret. It's your fault. You read too much and should not be looking at that menu. You certainly should not be listening to those forums of idiots that think they know more than the professionals.

[Superstar]

Always all about the money. Diabetics are taught to check blood glucose levels and inject a medicine that can easily kill them if the dosage is not correctly calculated. Even children are taught how to do it. But we who dealing with AIR are not supposed to read and learn how to maximize our therapy. How depressing.

[Sleeprider]

Have you ever thought about the logic of requiring a $3000 test to qualify for a $600 machine, then asking patients to take additional tests to ensure it is still medically necessary after 5-years? Consider the "sleep specialists" that never see a patient, but sign off on technician reports, then blame the patients when complex problems like central apnea, upper airway resistance or more acute pulmonary disease arise, and fail to resolve with the cheapest CPAP and no patient support.

[SarcasticDave94]

After all, you meddling with CPAP pressures and looking at the hour meter might blow up a lung. From a PAP that can't inflate a balloon? Really.

No, what your self advocating is harming is the process of doctors billing you to visit to discuss pressures, and then getting the DME's involved to change the settings. Boat payments to 2 medical businesses where most have zero clues on PAP therapy.

The RT at the DME Lincare, Hagerstown that did the setup on my ASV in 2017 said she didn't know how to set it up, so she guessed and figured that would be acceptable. Oh really? My informed edit would be dangerous, but her guess is OK. No. That's probably why I didn't see her at that Lincare's office much after that.

Welcome to CPAP Circus.

[Superstar]

Sleeprider, to be honest I am so new to this I have not thought about much at all other than keeping the damn mask on my face with no leaks, lol.

SarcasticDave9, since I was diagnosed on Sept 14 I have probably spent 75+hrs reading and studying apnea, therapy and Oscar. I am currently at the Kindergarten level of knowledge up from pre K, lol. I am not a difficult patient. I am a compliant patient and a proactive one. They can deal with it.

[SarcasticDave94]

We were each new to this one day. There's not a problem in this, just ask the questions and there's going to be an answer. And there's probably nothing: PAP, doc, DME related that someone hasn't encountered. You have the desire to win which is half of the battle being won.

There's enough of us here that each has their own therapy speciality. Sleeprider and Gideon are still our chart and pressure gurus. Others have PC skills. Others still know insurance or masks. Myself, besides comic relief and some rudimentary coffee discussions, I've had one of the toughest paths to treatment with the mix of Central Apnea and COPD. My knowledge of CA and ASV gained here and by way of self advocacy has made doctors retire or transfer, and no I'm not joking.

Again I invite you to keep the questions coming, we at Apnea Board will answer them.