Insurance Question

Hey guys,

Will you never learn? If you keep answering my questions I'll just keep bothering you with more.

I'm currently renting a machine from a local DME. (Typical exhorbitant charges of course). I'm curious if anyone has tried to then purchase a machine from CPAP.com. What happened with the insurance? Can you then "stop renting" from one place and buy one from elsewhere? Do you get any coverage from insurance then?

I've already sent the info. into billmyinsurance so we will see what happens. I'm just curious about others experiences.

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. After one month of renting, a rep from the DME who handles the insurance end called me and asked how I was doing and if I was interested in having a machine bought for me; to which I said, "Yes, of course."

She then arranged it for me, through my insurance company, and within a couple of weeks, after deciding which machine I really wanted, I had my own bought for me by insurance. They still give me my filters and everything else related to the therapy, but they no longer have to pay the rental fees every month. I guess it saves them money to do it that way.

I was also blessed that my insurance company allowed me to get the machine I wanted, which was the Remstar Auto. I ended up paying for my own software and card reader, but I wouldn't expect them to buy that for me as it's not, according to them, a medical necessity. I could disagree on that, but I wasn't going to argue the point. I was very happy with how they treated me throughout the whole process so far. Even my sleep studies were no out-of-pocket. All those monthly high premiums finally paid off.

My understanding with my insurance is that they rent for three months and then if you are compliant they will purchase the machine. The DME is taking care of everything for me. I know they are probably charging an outrageous price for everything but that's what I have paid insurance premiums for all these years. Now it's pay back time. Just one of those attitudes that I have.

I bought my machine from cpap.com. You will need a prescription from your doctor. With your prescription you select and can buy any machine that you want. I live in Canada, but I had it shipped to my father's home and picked it up when I visited him. I filed my insurance claim was reimbursed 100% for it and the mask I ordered. You might want to try using their "billmyinsurance" feature to see if they can be of assistance to you. It is very odd to me how the insurance companies in the U.S. will pay a DME so much money to let you rent or eventually buy a machine that is priced twice as much as the ones at cpap.com

Geeze....I wish I was having as much luck as you guys were