CPAPSupplyUSA Goes Down the Drain with Lincare Take over

[SleepyNights]

"So for I have gotten good service"

You must have just signed on yesterday or not asked for anything new to try. When the Swift FX came out it took them 6 months to get me one.

[MidnightOwl]

Both Lincare and Apria have been going around buying up local DMEs. When they do this often the original employees stay on - at least for a while. I think that probably explains the range of experiences people have with the chains. The Apria office you go to today may have been Joe's Friendly Family DME yesterday and Joe may still be there doing as many things as possible the way he always did. Which can mean good service or, like my old DME which was later bought by Lincare, it can mean a long tradition of lousy service. However the longer they are owned the more standardized they will become. And one of the favorite ways for a chain to save money is to hire the least qualified people they can get away with.

[chunkyfrog]

We know that with building expenses and staffing, there is NO WAY a brick and mortar store can compete with online suppliers, without relying on the twin cash cows of oxygen services and mobility chairs.
I wonder if the online acquisition will become 'in-network' for the various insurance companies contracting with Lincare. Unless they do, they will be unable to compete with the higher prices that are sure to come.
Maybe they will just shut them down.

[Slinky]

All the online DME providers have a brick and mortar for housing their business, their inventory, their phones, etc. What the online DME providers DON'T have is the headache and expense of dealing w/insurances.

When an online DME provider sells an item or items, it is cash on the barrelhead. They receive their money before they ship the item(s).

When a brick and mortar DME provider sells an item or items via insurance they are faced w/having laid out the cost of the item as the online provider was BUT instead of getting their money up front before the item leaves their store they are faced w/"time payments" for some items (CPAPs for instance stretched over 10-13 months) or w/at least a two month delay in receipt of payment - plus many denials requiring appeals, corrections due to coding errors, etc., etc.

Think how long it took you to get your EOB from your insurance. THAT is how long it took your DME provider to get their payment - maybe. They might not get it all in one payment but rather doled out in bits and pieces. Ever get an EOB for an item or procedure done 6 months or longer ago? I have. More than once.

[SleepyTonight]

I understand that Lincare has also purchased the online company Open-Aire, and oxygen supplier. I guess there are not any more mom and pop DMEs for them to buy so they have move on up the food chain.

[Checkmate]

I live near the town where this company exists (Richmond VA). I had been dealing with them for several year -- until today, I guess.

I never understood their business from my first contact. They had a website. Several years ago, I was looking for a company that would offer supplies where they would bill directly to insurance. At the time, I couldn't find many. I contacted them and found out they were in my city. I figured it a win-win, so I set up an account with them.

As we all know, they required a prescription. I had my doctor write one for a Cpap and supplies.

When I visited, I knew exactly which unit I wanted. They attempted to steer me to anything other than what I wanted. Finally, they agreed. I like the PB Breeze and they gave me the same resistance, but ultimately agreed.

Things went well for a year or so, as they sent me quarterly supplies (Hose, Filter, Mask) and billed my insurance. Then, they stopped sending supplies. Since I had a stockpile, I didn't really pay attention. I finally drove out and visited them one day. They told me that they couldn't contact me to periodically verify my address and I gave them the benefit of the doubt as this seemed reasonable.

Since my last order fell in the previous year, they told me they needed to fax my doctor for prescription. While there I asked if I could setup my order while waiting on the doctor. While looking at masks, I stated that I wanted to get a full-face for one quarterly order, but wanted to stay with the PB Breeze for the rest of the year. The person told me that the Breeze was no longer being made. While this is my first post, I have been reading this forum for years and I know that the Breeze is a fan favorite. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and left feeling upset that such a good product was discontinued.

When I got home I did a bunch of research and found no indication that the Breeze was discontinued. I looked at another forum where someone had the same thing said to them by another DME. In the forum thread, it was discovered that the DME was really just not willing to provide the product and was steering the customer to a higher product product. I even wrote to the company (I forget now) that owns PB and asked if they had discontinued the PB. The said they hadn't and asked which company told me this -- I never replied back.

I called CPAPSUPPLYUSA back and told asked them about the PB Breeze. Once again, they said it was discontinued.

I got my supplies in the mail a few weeks later with the other mask I had accepted as a replacement.

Four or five months went by with no supplies, so I contacted them via email and asked if I needed to confirm or do something. The representative sent me a return email indicating they were cash and carry or online only with no insurance billing. Go figure!

I know they had two store-fronts in the same office park. One was Manor Healthcare and the other was CPAPSUPPLYUSA. They were evasive about the online and insurance billing relationship, and I chalked it up to some peculiar business practice in healthcare that I just didn't understand and didn't care about as long as I got service.

Anyway, I'm a little peaved that they didn't contact to let me know they discontinued the service. As I've indicated, I have always thought there was something "off" about their steering of products, telling me the PB Breeze was discontinued, and the relationship with the other company that they didn't want to discuss.

From this forum thread, I now understand that they were bought-out, but they could have written me a letter. Maybe I expect too much. Even though they are in my town, I think I'll do business elsewhere. I cannot say they were ever mean to me, but I cannot say they were ever overly helpful, either.

I would like to find a company that does billing and automatic product auto-fulfillment.

Lastly, this is purely my opinion and experience, and I don't want to paint their entire service and support as anything other than one person's account -- they may be awesome in the eyes of others.
Ok, I find that I am being delicate and not saying what I want to say, but I'll just leave it at that since most of my contact with them was by phone and in person with little to support to my comments if they wanted to contest my words.

[TiredOfDMEs]

$13.88 for shipping a $28.00 part? WTF

[nanwilson]

$13.88 for shipping a $28.00 part? WTF

It doesn't matter what the price of the item was, the postal service still charges the same for a certain size package. Your item could have cost you $9.95 and the shipping would still be $13.88. Our hosts cpap.com are the same, if I order a pack of filters for $9, they still charge me $17 for shipping...so I usually try to bundle a few items on the same order and not have to pay the shipping more than once.

[TIGNBAB]

DO NOT USE LINCARE! Problems, problems, problems in their San Antonio TX office. They lost my paperwork at least twice...causing me to have to return to my doctor over and over to get docments signed. I finally had it out with "Mark" the office manager. He is worthless. He kept trying to blame new Medicare rules for his employees incompetence. I asked him "Does Lincare desire to be known as a efficient, speedy and reliable company?" He never said "Yes"....just mumbled something about Medicare rules. He could not even support his own company. My affair with them ended after it took them over a YEAR to determine that my sleep study did not meet their format! They had a new employee, young lady, call and give me the bad news as none of the staff had the courage to do it themselves. This young lady did not even know what to say to me.
Gutless, incompetent, group of people.

[LINCARE Customer]

I have been using lincare for a few years and see what everyone is talking about, high prices and the product is getting cheaper. My hose seems to be getting of lower quality each time. My hose popped a hole in it and after calling Lincare supply Company they told me they could not replace it due to my insurance not authorizing it. I told them it is not the insurance companies problem that it was the Supply Companies issue. I called within 60 days of sending it in the first place and they used my next Months hose authorization for the replacement. I asked why should I use my authorization and she said just can't. I am very upset with them. I used to use apria health CPAP supply company and never had an issue with sending it nor authorizing it. If I had any trouble with any part of my order breaking they did replace it at no cost to me. The products were of great quality as well. I suggest to use apria health as your supply company!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't believe the shit quality of the Lincare products!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!