Help me pick a new DME

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
acbaldwi
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Help me pick a new DME

Post by acbaldwi » Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:32 am

I'm firing apria as they can never seem to get my orders right, so its time to find a new DME


Aetna has given me the following choices.

American Home patient - 877-268-6014
Edgepark - 800-321-0591
Lincare - 800-546-2273
Medline Industires - 866-356-4997


Also it appears my S9 that i was assigned through apria is now off rental as they are no longer being billed for it so I think i get to keep it at this point....


TIA for any advice on any of these providers

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LSAT
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by LSAT » Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:47 am

If possible...go into the local office and talk to the rep...you will get a good idea if you want to do business with them. If you are doing it strictly by phone, there may be problems with all of them.....Apria is probably the worst.

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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by ChicagoGranny » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:41 pm

Ask your sleep doc's assistant. Mine knows the local suppliers and knows which ones do their patients right.

districtsleepy
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by districtsleepy » Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:27 pm

Did you ever determine what was the best Aetna DME? I just got diagnosed and have Aetna and would be interested to know. Staying away from Apria on your advice! Thanks!

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OkyDoky
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by OkyDoky » Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:52 pm

It would be hard to tell you which would be best for you. There are regional differences and even office differences. Even Aetna has diffferent coverage sometimes by area.You need to check with your insurance to be sure which ones are in network. A visit to the local office to get a feel for the environment and ask questions about how they provide service. I have Apria and while we got off to a rocky start we are now coexisting. When I needed help, before I came here, I could never get a return call from them. And later I got lots of sales calls, but I learned I could request them to stop the calls and did. So I'm telling you this because it would be nice to have a local number to the office you use. Mine had no local number their calls all went to a national call bank.
Both of the suggestions above by LSAT and ChicagoGranny are good.
ResMed Aircurve 10 VAUTO EPAP 11 IPAP 15 / P10 pillows mask / Sleepyhead Software / Back up & travel machine Respironics 760

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bwexler
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by bwexler » Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:26 pm

I actually had found a specific individual at Crapria in the office near where I just moved.
But my new insurance does not include Crapria so I get to train a new DME.
We are in the early stages, setting up a new account and learning about my copayment. No way to know if I jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.

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chunkyfrog
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by chunkyfrog » Tue Jan 26, 2016 8:47 am

Even if you are not on Medicare, you can use my link (below) for DME's in your area that are on both lists.

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russmac
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by russmac » Tue Jan 26, 2016 11:49 am

I had a good experience with Lincare. I was on vacation when my old machine died. It had been giving signs of trouble. I hurried and found a local doc to write a prescription (I had my sleep study with me), and then went to Lincare because they were also local and wouldn't require shipping. That same day I was out the door with my brand new machine and mask for $775. The price was lower than I had expected. I paid out of pocket so I don't know how it would be to deal with insurance through them. I thought their staff was nice and very helpful.

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flightco
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by flightco » Tue Jan 26, 2016 12:18 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote:Ask your sleep doc's assistant. Mine knows the local suppliers and knows which ones do their patients right.
+1

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cathyf
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by cathyf » Tue Jan 26, 2016 1:48 pm

Does anybody know how one Lincare office is related to the others? We changed insurance companies, and my old DME (that I really liked) isn't in the new network. I have kind of a special need... I live in a small town, with no in-network providers. 12 miles east of where I live is a bigger town where we mostly go for more complicated medical stuff, but in the old plan there weren't any in that town, either. But I work in a town 30 miles west of where I live, and they had two in-network places. I picked my dme because I wasn't crazy about the one other choice. When we got the new network, I thought, great -- finally I can go to one of the nearby places in the 12 mile away town.

Except that these places are open 9-5 on weekdays, when I'm at work 40-some miles away. So I next noticed that there is a Lincare office in both towns, and they are both in the network.

Ok, so does anybody know if this works? Can I use both offices? Does Lincare tend to have more evening/weekend hours?

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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by ChicagoGranny » Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:15 pm

cathyf wrote:Can I use both offices? Does Lincare tend to have more evening/weekend hours?
Would picking up the phone and calling the Lincare office(s) you are referring to not give you more reliable information than people on a forum who do not know which two offices you are referring to will be able to give you?

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cathyf
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Re: Help me pick a new DME

Post by cathyf » Tue Jan 26, 2016 2:22 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote:
cathyf wrote:Can I use both offices? Does Lincare tend to have more evening/weekend hours?
Would picking up the phone and calling the Lincare office(s) you are referring to not give you more reliable information than people on a forum who do not know which two offices you are referring to will be able to give you?
Well, yes, but only if they were telling the truth.

When I'm looking for the Straight Dope(tm), the accumulated wisdom here is a lot more valuable and reliable!