Complaints about Lincare

[javawan]

I can't remember doing business with a company which approaches customer service with such a complete lack of regard for followup, timely assistance, actually doing what they say they will do . . . The list of complaints is way to long to enumerate.

Phone calls often require massively long death hold, after which, their system simply forwards you to their message system and hangs up.

If one leaves a message, it is at least three days before they return the call.

If one orders supplies, one is never sure whether the order will actually be filled. In fact, I ordered a humidifier chamber for my Resmed H5 humidifier in October, along with some other supplies; about a month later, I received the other supplies but not the humidifier chamber. Rather than make another fruitless attempt to call their central number, I called P. S. Homecare in Denver, and asked them to order the chamber. Two weeks later, I followed up with another call to the Denver facility, who told me that for some reason the order did not appear in the system. The local facility replaced the order, and in late Dec I received the wrong stinking chamber.

Once again, I called the local facility and gave them the ResMed part number of the chamber I needed, and finally got the proper chamber and was able to return the incorrect chamber for credit.

All of this has taken over three months and countless phone calls.

I recently called Lincare to inform them of a change in my Medicare supplemental insurance. After the obligatory death hold, the person I called told me I must give that information to the local people. I called P S Homecare in Denver once again, and spent about five minutes giving the person all of the numbers on my new insurance card, and also asking her to place an order for the ResMed ClimatLine tubing.

Two days later, I realized that because my new insurance involved a 20% co-insurance, I must supply them with a credit card. The person not only had not done anything with the information I had given her, she didn't even remember the call, and hadn't placed the order for the tubing.

So, another two hours of waiting on death hold, or being routed to different people/departments (all but the last being the wrong person) I went through the process of giving my new insurance numbers, and placing the order for the tubing.

I wonder if this order and all of the attended information I supplied will also find their way into the ether? I am not hopeful.

[Slinky]

Yup, yup. Sounds familiar. Lincare follows only Apria in the list of lousy local DME providers. Does your insurance allow you any other local DME provider options?? Even if you are still "under contract" w/Lincare for the purchase of your CPAP, if you have the option of other local DME providers you can "shop" them to find one you are satisfied w/and buy your accessories from them in stead of Lincare. Then when your CPAP purchase has been completed w/Lincare you are totally shed of them for good. Unless your insurance at some point opts to do business w/only Lincare.

[Janknitz]

Two days later, I realized that because my new insurance involved a 20% co-insurance,

Sounds to me like your new supplemental policy is no longer picking up the 20% that Medicare doesn't pay???? If that's the case, your supplemental insurance shouldn't dictate where you get your supplies and you can use any Medicare certified DME you want--so why keep beating your head against a rock with Lincare??? They get away with treating people like dirt because we keep letting them.

[Slinky]

Good catch, JanKnitz!! I totally missed that.

[Johnie]

I completely concur. The "service" from Lincare was terrible. When I received supplies they were NEVER the right supplies. The billing is something I'm still dealing with even though I haven't darkened their door in over 5 months. I would warn anyone to avoid dealing with them at all.

[macewa]

I don't know if Hometown Oxygen is just a local/state company or not, but I can say they have been there for me everytime I've had problems. I could not ask for better service. Way beyond what most companies give today. Maybe I'm just lucky with the person I deal with. She is fabulous.

I completely concur. The "service" from Lincare was terrible. When I received supplies they were NEVER the right supplies. The billing is something I'm still dealing with even though I haven't darkened their door in over 5 months. I would warn anyone to avoid dealing with them at all.

[Heavylids]

I just started with Lincare and have no complaints. Maybe because I'm in a smaller town. But after a 2nd visit yesterday for a new mask and hi pressure setting adjust I got a call from the RT who is assigned to me. He was very concerned because he couldn't remember if he reset the low pressure setting back to 4 on my apap. He gave me his personal mobile numner and said to call him back and he would even come out to my home that evening if I wanted so he could check it. No complaints so far.

[Janknitz]

I've heard that some local offices of Lincare are good. If you are lucky enough to have a good one, that's great. But if you have a lousy one, you don't have to put up with rotten treatment unless you have no other choice through your insurer and you can't afford to buy your own supplies.

I think it's important to vote with your feet if you're not happy with the service. They get away with it because we let them.

DME's do not consider us to be their customers. They get paid mostly by insurance, they get referrals from doctors. They see little value to pleasing us, since most of us bend over and take it. We are just the necessary evil they have to put up with in order to make money.

As long as we continue to let them treat us this way, they will.

[leveebreak]

So far, so good. Recently moved to a new state and much bigger town (Lawrenceville GA). Lincare, here, has been responsive and responsible. We're nicely impressed by the quality of service tecs that come to our home. Also, no telephone or billing problems.

[jjmahern]

I won;t deal with Lincare. They totally tried to scam me into buying a mask from them when clearly I am poor and couldn't afford to take time off. they pretended they didn't get a specific requyest for a mask, made me leave work early (pay 10 parking driving to work so I could get there before it closed) and then said here's the mask that your insurance will cover and then when i asked about the specific mask they said it would be 170 dollars. I think she thought if she got me in the office I would have to get one or the other cause i was already there and she didn't care cause she would get paid by insurance or me. I told them no and paid out of pocket for mask for 90 dollars. They just want your money and don't care about you or how they get it. I will never use them ever again. btw I live in seattle

[jwerley]

I use Lincare here in Newport Beach, Ca.......and they have been wonderful to me...could not ask for better service with everything from purchasing my machine from them, questions I might have, and their quick service. The only thing I have to do is play dumb because if they knew that I played with my numbers they would be horrified.....

[grillhead]

I called my local Lincare when I was looking for a DME and was not impressed. They told me that my insurance would not pay for a PR System One Series 60 1. because it is an APAP and 2. because it's the top of the line lab type, not the type that is used in homes. She also told me that they do not work with ResMed for whatever reason that she didn't know. After being flat out lied to, I wasn't interested.

[Heavylids]

I called my local Lincare when I was looking for a DME and was not impressed. They told me that my insurance would not pay for a PR System One Series 60 1. because it is an APAP and 2. because it's the top of the line lab type, not the type that is used in homes. She also told me that they do not work with ResMed for whatever reason that she didn't know. After being flat out lied to, I wasn't interested.

Makes me wonder if Lincare offices are independently owned. My location is great. They have pretty much bent over backwards to help me transition to cpap and replace the s9 Escape I originally received with an S9 Autoset.

When I go to the office to try a new mask they offer me samples of things to try like the Gecko nasal pads, Remzzzz mask liners and face lotions made to help with leaks. Lincare still treats me as we'll as the first time I went to their office.

[Goofproof]

I got off with a rocky start with using Lincare in 2005, over the years, they are doing a better job.

Yesterday I had to restart oxygen service with them. I saw my Dr at 3 pm, lincare called me at 4:30 pm about setting up my O2, at 5:30 they were at my door with everything. I don't know how they could have been better, they almost beat me home. I do have them as provider with my ins, so prior billing may have been a factor.

The tech brought in one and hooked it up, unnoticed it was little noisy, so he wentout to the truck and got another one, it was much quieter, 1/2 noise level of the one I had in 2005. power usage is 335 watts. Jim

[SleepDepraved2]

I've been going around and around with them about the billing. They billed my new insurance for charges that should have been billed to my old insurance. They billed me the wrong amount. Apparently, I should be paying 10 percent and not 20 percent for my portion.

Because I told them I was moving to a new DME, Wright & Filippis, since my insurance pays them 100%, they inactivated my account and stopped sending me supplies, which I don't blame them for as I told them to do so.

But it turns out Wright & Filippis are even worse when it comes to offering service for CPAP than Lincare. They have had a prescription for something for me for a couple weeks and have yet to call to try to set up an appointment for me to pick up the new machine my doctor prescribed. They will not send me supplies for my mask without a prescription for a mask. I asked my doctor to send one for my mask as well over 2 weeks ago. Nothing. I finally determined they must not be that interested in my business. This is the situation the insurance company sets up when they make some DMEs their preferred providers. The DMEs then figure they have a lock on all this business, so why should they have to try hard?

So I went back to Lincare. While the billing office definitely has problems, at least the local office calls me to see how I'm doing and calls within a day or two of receiving a new prescription. The supply center calls me when it's time for new supplies to get the okay to send them. At this point, I'll eat the 10% I have to pay, just so I can get some decent service. I just have to get the billing office to reactivate my account at the supply center so I can get a new cushion for my mask. Once this all gets back to where it was before I decided to move to W&F, then it should be much better.