What's new in bipeds?

[tobindia]

My wife and I both have Phillips Respironics bipaps. I’ve had mine for 7-8 years. My wife a bit less. We travel a lot, and we are finding our bipaps to be more and more cumbersome. With the humidifier attachment, they’re each about the size of a shoebox, necessitating a carry-on suitcase just for them. So, I thought I’d see whether there’s anything new out there that may be a bit smaller.

Also, does anyone know about the Medicare aspect of this? I seem to recall that Medicare would pay again after 5 (?) years. Is that correct?

[SewTired]

Yes, Medicare will pay for another machine after 5 years BUT with the new rules, it may not be so easy to get it. Depends on what your DME provider does. Medicare says they will no longer replace machines unless they are worn out or broken. For my DME provider that means that your machine must have at least 15,000 hours or have a repair that costs too much to fix OR machine is over 5 years old and requires repair (Medicare pays for repair until machine is 5 years old regardless of hours).

So far, I don't know anybody who has been able to get Medicare to pay for anything but a regular machine. If you can tolerate operating the machine without humidity, the 560 series and Dream separate so that you can leave the humidifier behind for travel. That's about all I know about the bipaps. My brother has one, but I only have to haul it a short ways, not through an airport, for instance.

[palerider]

My wife and I both have Phillips Respironics bipaps. I’ve had mine for 7-8 years. My wife a bit less. We travel a lot, and we are finding our bipaps to be more and more cumbersome. With the humidifier attachment, they’re each about the size of a shoebox, necessitating a carry-on suitcase just for them. So, I thought I’d see whether there’s anything new out there that may be a bit smaller.

Also, does anyone know about the Medicare aspect of this? I seem to recall that Medicare would pay again after 5 (?) years. Is that correct?

Most bipeds are the same as they've been for sometime.

bilevel cpaps however, have gotten smaller and quieter, but that's about all in the last 8 years.

[Goofproof]

Most are still walking on two legs. Jim

[Okie bipap]

So far, I don't know anybody who has been able to get Medicare to pay for anything but a regular machine.

I don't know what you classify as a regular machine, but my wife and I both have Air Curve 10 vauto machines purchased by Medicare. These are both our original machines since our doctor documented we did not tolerate cpap on our original prescriptions.

[LSAT]

Medicare replacement guidelines.... https://www.resmed.com/us/dam/documents ... achine.pdf

[greatunclebill]

Medicare has all them crazy rules, but any good dme knows all the answers to give medicare to get things replaced. When i got my new resmed, i had the dr face to face with a prescription from him and it flew right thru. nobody saw my old machine to verify anything. So. talk to your doctor and dme.

[raisedfist]

The ResMed AirCurve series is probably the best package in terms of size, features and design. IMO anyway.

[SewTired]

So far, I don't know anybody who has been able to get Medicare to pay for anything but a regular machine.

I don't know what you classify as a regular machine, but my wife and I both have Air Curve 10 vauto machines purchased by Medicare. These are both our original machines since our doctor documented we did not tolerate cpap on our original prescriptions.

I guess I needed to be more specific. I meant the type of machine classified as a 'travel' size machine. Link to same: https://www.cpap.com/cpap-machines/trav ... achine.php