New CPAP & Medicare

My CPAP is now 5 years old and I would like to get a new one and keep my old one as a backup. How many hoops do I have to jump through to get approval from Medicare? My ENT will write a Rx for whatever equipment I want. Does my cpap have to be broken and/or unrepairable before they will approve a new machine. Thanks for any inputs.

Medicare has got more finicky about that 5 year thing. Supposedly now the old machine needs to be broken or something is needed on a new machine that isn't available on the old machine that might impact therapy.
Check with your DME equipment supplier to see what they would need.
Get that RX from your ENT and take it to the DME and see what happens.
People are still getting new machines at the 5 year mark without any seemingly obstructions...makes me wonder if the DMEs are including "the machine is broken beyond repair" in the paperwork somewhere that people don't see.

For what it's worth. While I'm not a lawyer, I have dealt with AF contracts when I was in the AF, but more importantly I've dealt with contract law dealing with companies such as Kraft.

My contract is with Nationwide Medical and Medicare.

A cursory reading said very, very little about machines and their replacement. The only thing I could find was if the machine broke and the cost of repair was too high to repair it.

The best way to find out is to call Medicare and ask.
Plug your phone in; they were quick when I called, but that is not always the case.
If your current, obsolete machine was paid for by Medicare, perhaps your DME
may be willing to render an "imaginative" repair estimate.