07-13-2021, 08:26 PM
New AS 10 to replace S9
Just replaced my 6 year old S9 with an AS 10. S9's display has been hard to read for the past year or so - LCD failure. Stripes through the display, but it worked. Interesting fight resulted when MD submitted request for new machine to supplier. MD reported back that no new machine unless I do a new sleep study. NP. I figure good idea since maybe thing had changed since last SS. Last SS was 2014, and really a titration study for the one I had in 2006 or so. (2006 - 2014 was a respironics I think).
Called insurance a few days prior to ensure all was good. (Ins. through med center employer (wife's ins) and they make you use them for anything they can do... Cat, MRI, Surg., etc) so wanted to make sure that all ok. So.. Ins co. says not approved yet since req. was only days prior and MD / Sleep study center didn't provide requested info.
Gets interesting here... Ins co. ends up denying SS since no med records, and no history indicating Sleep Apnea. Called MD. Told them what ins response was. MD - actually PA / Nurse - says that she can't find record of Sleep Study since 2006. Told her to look harder since I had one in 2014 - and I can see it on THEIR online portal. All of a sudden she finds the report. Ins. company comes back again denying SS since no indication of Sleep Apnea in med records - never mind what the SS says. I can appeal, but who knows how long. In the midst of this, DME leaves message saying new machine, but ins. will pay 80% - rent for 13 months, and I pay $11 a month for 13 months then I own. I figure no need to fight since I get a new machine for $143 total, and if Lincare didn't do something right with ins., and ins denies... here's YOUR machine. That should come up in a month or so if it's gonna I would think.
Something else interesting is that I thought the S9 was failing beyond the display issue because it seemed to not really adjust sometimes. Pressure seemed to like "peg" out at times. I'd press stop and restart, and move on. Could't read the display, etc. and that's why I hit MD up for new machine. Also didn't really mess with my sleep since I don't have an issue going back to sleep, and I'm really used to CPAP. Hadn't read data from S9 for a long time. Downloaded OSCAR to start looking at new machine data. Turns out that autoset max on S9 had been reset to 12 at some point. S9 was pegging at 12 kinda frequently. That seems to kill EPR, so that's probably why I noticed it. I suspect that maybe when the card was "read" at MD at some point, they altered the setting. I know it was 16 while I could still read the display, and I know my RX from last titration said 12. So maybe some helpful person "found a config error and fixed it". Who knows? I know I'll be watching closer now.
Here's a 1 year summary:
4 July on S9 showing pressure pegged
Around 3:30 it shows a stop and restart since I must not have liked it
You can probably see that didn't faze me much
4 July on S9.pdf (Size: 995.2 KB / Downloads: 4)
10 July on AS10. Pressure runs up a bit higher than the 12 that was the prior max
Still working on mask to lower leaks
10 July on AS10.pdf (Size: 1.01 MB / Downloads: 4)
Called insurance a few days prior to ensure all was good. (Ins. through med center employer (wife's ins) and they make you use them for anything they can do... Cat, MRI, Surg., etc) so wanted to make sure that all ok. So.. Ins co. says not approved yet since req. was only days prior and MD / Sleep study center didn't provide requested info.
Gets interesting here... Ins co. ends up denying SS since no med records, and no history indicating Sleep Apnea. Called MD. Told them what ins response was. MD - actually PA / Nurse - says that she can't find record of Sleep Study since 2006. Told her to look harder since I had one in 2014 - and I can see it on THEIR online portal. All of a sudden she finds the report. Ins. company comes back again denying SS since no indication of Sleep Apnea in med records - never mind what the SS says. I can appeal, but who knows how long. In the midst of this, DME leaves message saying new machine, but ins. will pay 80% - rent for 13 months, and I pay $11 a month for 13 months then I own. I figure no need to fight since I get a new machine for $143 total, and if Lincare didn't do something right with ins., and ins denies... here's YOUR machine. That should come up in a month or so if it's gonna I would think.
Something else interesting is that I thought the S9 was failing beyond the display issue because it seemed to not really adjust sometimes. Pressure seemed to like "peg" out at times. I'd press stop and restart, and move on. Could't read the display, etc. and that's why I hit MD up for new machine. Also didn't really mess with my sleep since I don't have an issue going back to sleep, and I'm really used to CPAP. Hadn't read data from S9 for a long time. Downloaded OSCAR to start looking at new machine data. Turns out that autoset max on S9 had been reset to 12 at some point. S9 was pegging at 12 kinda frequently. That seems to kill EPR, so that's probably why I noticed it. I suspect that maybe when the card was "read" at MD at some point, they altered the setting. I know it was 16 while I could still read the display, and I know my RX from last titration said 12. So maybe some helpful person "found a config error and fixed it". Who knows? I know I'll be watching closer now.
Here's a 1 year summary:
4 July on S9 showing pressure pegged
Around 3:30 it shows a stop and restart since I must not have liked it
You can probably see that didn't faze me much
4 July on S9.pdf (Size: 995.2 KB / Downloads: 4)
10 July on AS10. Pressure runs up a bit higher than the 12 that was the prior max
Still working on mask to lower leaks
10 July on AS10.pdf (Size: 1.01 MB / Downloads: 4)
