Cost to get CPAP or BiPap through Medicare?

[k_ogre]

as for the 1st payment that for the mask, hose and the other crap they add then it's $21 month so around $360 then it's mine

[SewTired]

I appreciate everybody's responses and thought I would report my findings with Medicare and supplementals. I live in a Medicare Bid Competition area, so there are only 4 or 5 DMEs to choose from. Apria has a bad rep, so I'm totally avoiding them. With traditional Medicare, supplemental policies cover either all or none; if you are in the lower tiers, it covers none of your cpap or supply costs. If the upper, more expensive tier, it covers all. They TELL you that they cover 80/20, but that is what Medicare covers, not what supplemental policy will pay. So, my tier 1 policy, I pay 20%, my brother's tier 3 policy pays 100% of his.

The cost to me in my area will be less than $10 per month for 13 months. Whether I get a separate humidifier or an integrated humidifier, I still have to pay about $35 for the humidifier. All other supplies are on the same scale, I pay 20%. If, for some reason, the doctor switches me to a bipap, I return the machine and get a bipap and the 13 months starts all over again. I don't have a different payment due to the deductible in January, some people may. She was actually able to look that up via my social security number.

Reading other sites and complaints (mostly Apria), make sure you do not sign a paper that assigns you the remaining cost of the unit if Medicare doesn't pay. At most, you should be responsible only for one month where YOU did not provide compliance data. There are instances when DMEs have not sent in the compliance data (or claimed they did not receive it) and then Medicare stops paying. I don't know what language to write on the contract, but this is a rental. If they don't notify you immediately that payment has not been received by Medicare, your agreement is void and you can then return the machine. Some people have been notified months after they thought they owned the machine that Medicare stopped paying after 3 months because the DME was not forwarding on the compliance data. Then they owe a couple of thousand dollars for a machine they could have bought for $850. Remember, verbal agreements are only as good as the paper they are written on - and signed by the manager.

edited to add: I forgot to add about supplies. Medicare rules do not allow DMEs to automatically send you supplies. Some go around this if your supplemental pays the 100%, but they aren't supposed to. What they can do is contact you regularly to ask you if you need any CPap supplies. Pain in the neck, but it's Medicare making the rules on that.