Apria Advice

[DariaVader]

Monkey... personally i wouldn't tell them anything other than "do not charge my CC." i would call the CC card company and ask them to "blacklist" any charges from apria. I have done this before when canceling services a couple of times did not work to stop automatic payments (i hate those). Works well. Tell apria that they are not to charge your credit card that you prefer to pay by check if something you will need to pay them for comes up.

Parkerdt... condolences on being bought by a company that will downgrade your bennies. I hope they will increase compensation to make up for it... talented folk such as you probably are, are tuff to find!

[DWaldman]

Welcome to 'murica, land of lower benefits and higher costs.

[parkerdt]

Good stuff here, thanks, folks! Daria, as to reduced benefits, the health insurance is actually a lot better in some regards, and $230/month less expensive. However, DME expense and Diabetic supplies did
take a hit. Still going to save way more than enough to max out my flex spending account, which will help make up the difference.

Our plan is going to be through BCBS of Massachusetts; not sure if they have other DMEs other than Apria, but you can bet I will find out.

thanks,
Dave

[kaiasgram]

Someone on another forum once posted his solution when he was stuck with crapria and being forced to give a credit card number -- he went out and bought a prepaid, non-reloadable VISA gift card and gave that number to Apria. He chose an amount closest to what he knew his copay would be. Doing this protected his permanent credit cards and avoided having to fight with Apria to pull his card number later, or having to dispute erroneous charges by them (a common occurrence).

My understanding is that a reloadable card can be overdrawn and charged fees, whereas a one-time (gift) prepaid card cannot. Charges beyond the limit would simply be declined.

I have never used Apria, though they once called me out of the blue and left a voicemail saying that they do not deliver respiratory equipment in my area and that they delivered my respiratory equipment last month.

[Sleeprider]

Great suggestion on the Visa gift cards. That's an easy and non-confrontational approach to protecting your interests.

[PaytonA]

.....I have never used Apria, though they once called me out of the blue and left a voicemail saying that they do not deliver respiratory equipment in my area and that they delivered my respiratory equipment last month.

Do they sound a little confused and maybe stooooopid on top of that?

[kaiasgram]

.....I have never used Apria, though they once called me out of the blue and left a voicemail saying that they do not deliver respiratory equipment in my area and that they delivered my respiratory equipment last month.

Do they sound a little confused and maybe stooooopid on top of that?

No kidding! Aside from the violation of patient privacy (they stated the name of the person they thought they were calling), it cracked me up. I am a licensed mental health professional and I have a very lengthy greeting on my voicemail and it was my work number that they called. My greeting starts out with "Hello, this is (my name).... That it didn't match their patient's name was of no significance to them, they just went right on to leave that baffling message!

[parkerdt]

I've gotten some PMs regarding my coverage by BCBS of MA when I live in NC. Long and the short - I am working for an employer domiciled in MA, so that is where the health plan is written. Sorry I don't have any magic ways of porting BCBS of MA out of state on an individual plan... I do know that BCBS of NC has seemingly similar plans, but I have no idea of rates, etc.

Dave

[JPaulos]

Dave, you probably know the ropes well enough it shouldn't be a big problem. Apria has a CPAP call center that handles everything related to supplies and machines. Order what you want, when you want it to minimize copays, or allow automatic deliveries of what you want. Like any supplier, they can only charge the allowed amount on supplies, so it works out pretty close to what you'd expect.

BCBS has more than one in-network DME, so once you have your card, call and ask, or go online and look for the in-network DME list. I wouldn't lose any sleep over this. The people that have problems are those that don't know what to look for or what to expect. You'll be fine, other than some possible inconvenience and frustration. Know your policy limits and allowances.

I have had nothing but pain and aggravation in my dealings with Apria- their call center, Apria office locations, Apria in general. Apparently no one in their call center talks to anyone else, so you get one story from one person and a different story when you talk to someone else. They will not give you any sort of confirmation number when you order, you have to try and call them back to find out if your order has been completed or shipped (good luck getting thru their call tree!); their store front offices HAVE NO INVENTORY on hand, so even if their control center tells you their office can provide supplies (and they did), in fact their office cannot do anything except place an order for you. I could go on and on. I'm so unhappy with this company but I have no choice because, now that I'm on Medicare, they are the "Medicare-approved" supplier of equipment that my HMO uses.

[Mosquitobait]

I'm so unhappy with this company but I have no choice because, now that I'm on Medicare, they are the "Medicare-approved" supplier of equipment that my HMO uses.

Please take the time to send a complaint to Medicare listing specifics. It's the only way we are going to get rid of Apria as a main supplier for Medicare.