ResMed S9 AutoSet: modem-SD card conflict?

My DME informed me that I should not insert the SD card into my spanking new S9 AutoSet as it would interfere with the installed modem. While I get that the modem is an efficient (and cheap!) tool for data collection for the DME, I want to be able to track my progress using ResScan and/or Sleepyhead.

I read elsewhere on this forum (see thread titled "Am I the only one with a Modem on machine?") that it's possible to use both the modem as well as the SD card if one did the following:
(1) disconnect the modem
(2) insert an unlocked SD card into the unit
(3) remove the card, lock it, and insert it into the computer/card reader while running the relevant software
(4) reconnect the modem

Can the gurus out there please confirm that this is the correct procedure? I also have the following additional questions:

(a) do I need to follow this process on a daily basis, or is once a week enough?

(b) are there any particular times of the day (e.g. business hours) I should avoid when doing this?

(c) do I need to disconnect the power cord when doing this? If yes, I assume the above steps would need to be modified as follows: (0) disconnect the power supply, (1) disconnect the modem, (1a) reconnect the power cord, (2) insert an unlocked SD card into the unit, (3) remove the card, lock it, and insert it into the computer/card reader while running the relevant software, (4) reconnect the modem.

Am looking forward to getting your responses to my first ever post! Thanks!!

First of all, I have never heard of a modem on cpap but then there are probably a lot of things regarding these devices I have not heard about. I am curious who your DME is so perhaps you might share that information.

As to the modem unit if indeed it does have one, it would have to transmit to your DME through a telephone line. That would require a physical connection through your telephone line or it would have to go through a "wy-fi" device also installed into yours or someone else telephone line. I for example pick up four of my neighbors wi-fi devices on my laptop although three of them are secured with passwords and one is not so anyone can hook into that and get a free ride so to speak.

If your DME told you that you could not access your SD card without interfering with their receiving it through the phone lines, they told you wrong. I seriously doubt that they have a large enough facility to monitor everyone's unit 24/7 so if you did take the SD card out there is no practical way for them to know unless you happened to do it just at the time they would try to get a readout. If that did happen, just tell them there was probably some sort of static interference and that they should check their equipment or something.

Alternatively, if indeed the DME does have their fingers on your card data, just tell them that on a certain day you choose and a time you choose that their access to your in formation will not be available and do it! I don't believe that they have any right to dictate to you when you can access your own information on that card. Sometimes, you have to be really assertive with these people. They do not (I presume) pay you to let them have this equipment in your home, it is your insurance company or you who pays them for this service.

Hope that helps.

pax
Roger

I am not familiar with modems for the ResMed S9 machines. The PR S1 machines that have modems..the modem covers the spot where the SD card is inserted but the presence of a SD card in the slot harms nothing.

Now the S9 machines...if a SD card is NOT inserted in the slot during the night when the machine is in use then the detailed data is lost because only minimal data is stored on the machine itself to be written to a SD card that gets inserted.

With any S9 machine...the SD card must be inserted all night for the detailed data to be put on the SD card.
Now with the PR S1 machines..there is some internal storage within the machine and if the SD card is left out over night only one detailed piece of data is lost.

So to have more data than is shown on the LCD screen of the machine...that SD card must be inserted in the slot throughout the night of use and just removing the modem briefly..popping in the SD card..waiting a few seconds for the data to be put on the card..removing SD card and replacing modem....won't give you the data on the SD card that you want to see using the software.

For ResMed machines I have no idea if having a SD card in the slot and having the modem attached affects the modem at all.
With the PR S1 machine it doesn't. I don't know if the DME is telling you a story or not but if you want to see the data that shows up in detail on the software..the SD card must be in place all night.

Just an addendum to Pugsy's post: The PRS1 modem uses the cellular network and does not require a phone line connection.

Hawkeye 269 ~ congratulations on your first post ever and welcome to the forum. You will learn more here than you ever knew existed so, keep a note book handy to jot down odd bits of information and reference the original poster. It will help tons when you think of something in the middle of the night and want to refresh your memory in the morning.

As for your modem issue, I'm surprised that you have a modem on your machine actually. It would be very expensive! I thought those were used primarily in a clinical setting so the technicians can monitor you during a sleep or titration study. When my DME does the verification thing, I just take them the data card. I don't know.... Maybe you should ask your doc Monday morning if you were supposed to get a machine w/modem.

Suz

@Roger, Basement Dweller & Suz:

Thanks for your responses, thought I'd clarify a few things about the S9 wireless modem. Technically, it's called the S9 wireless module and attaches to the back of the unit. You can learn more about it here: http://www.resmed.com/us/assets/documen ... er_eng.pdf, and here: http://www.resmed.com/us/products/restr ... c=patients. My DME is North Atlantic Medical, and they use ResMed's ResTraxx Online system. Since I'm not paying for the data transfer charges, I can only assume that this system works out cheaper for North Atlantic (unless my insurance is footing the bill, which I seriously doubt). Also, it doesn't work like a regular wi-fi connection - it's not discoverable on either my wife's or my laptop. Since DMEs are unfortunately known more often than not (at least on this forum!) for being slightly liberal with the truth, I can't be sure whether inserting an SD card into the machine will interfere with the data transmission through the wireless unit (currently, there's no data card in the machine) - hence my original post. Having said that, there's always a chance that the machine may divert all data to the SD card, and ignore the wireless unit altogether!

EDIT: FYI, I came across this post viewtopic/t77248/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=73 ... xx#p675279 on the "Let's clear up some misinformation" thread:

The wireless modems costs the providers about $180 dollars, plus $10 per month in wireless charge (like a phone, each wireless modem requires a data plan). So if you have it for 3 months the cost to the provider is $230 before adding in the costs of the RT that has to monitor the data.

And the reason 99% of patients wouldn't look twice at the bill is because literally 99 times out of 100 the insurance payer refuses to pay ANYTHING for the A9279, or an SD card for that matter, claiming it is already bundled into the cost of the device. See Resmed's guidance on this code below. It is almost never covered by insurance payers (even though DME providers incurr the costs on a rountine basis).

HCPCS code A9279
Description: Monitoring feature/device, stand-alone or integrated, any type, includes all accessories, components and electronics not otherwise classified
What DME suppliers need to know: This code applies to ResMed equipment including the ResTraxx, S9 Wireless module, ResLink™ and ResScan products as well as the S9 SD card. Suppliers should bill A9279 when providing the equipment to the patient, including the ResScan/S9 card at setup or when providing and using the ResTraxx device to remotely transfer compliance data. Since there is no payment attached to the HCPCS code A9279 at this time, suppliers can bill commercial payors and payment will be at their discretion, or consider negotiating payment with payors directly.

@Pugsy: thanks for your input, I guess what you said makes a lot of sense... I could take a chance and insert the SD card into the machine, but would love to hear from users (if there are any out there) who're using both ResTraxx as well as an SD card concurrently. Help!

I don't remember seeing much from a ResMed user about modem use here on the forum. A few Respironics machine users have modems.

You of course still have the data available on the LCD screen but I would be itching to see all the details and use the software.

I wonder if you could contact Resmed and get a straight answer out of them??

How long are you going to be in the compliance checking time period? They will remove the modem once compliance requirements have been met.

Wow, Hawkeye, that is so interesting! I'm very curious to see how it works out.

Suz

@Pugsy:

Pugsy wrote:I don't remember seeing much from a ResMed user about modem use here on the forum.

Yes, I know - I haven't had much luck despite trawling this forum!

Pugsy wrote:You of course still have the data available on the LCD screen but I would be itching to see all the details and use the software.

You bet! I've even downloaded ResScan 3.16_SP1 using the link you had provided in one of your earlier posts, and am dying to review the data... but don't want to insert the SD card into the machine until I know that it won't disrupt the data collection through the modem.

Pugsy wrote:I wonder if you could contact Resmed and get a straight answer out of them??

That's exactly what I plan to do come Monday - get in touch with ResMed tech support and try and get a straight answer out of them. I'd spoken to them earlier before my visit to the DME since I wanted to make sure I was getting the latest equipment with the most current firmware, etc., and they seemed pretty helpful the last time around. I got the numbers for both customer care and tech support from this forum, but don't know where I wrote them down - will have to search for them again.

Pugsy wrote:How long are you going to be in the compliance checking time period? They will remove the modem once compliance requirements have been met.

I'm embarrassed to admit I don't know! I'll get in touch with my DME as well on Monday.

@Suz:

Suzjohnson wrote:Wow, Hawkeye, that is so interesting! I'm very curious to see how it works out.

Suz

Thanks, Suz, I'll keep you (and everybody else) posted!

Hawkeye,

I have an S9 ResMed and it has a modem on it and I take the SD card out every morning to record my data in SleepyHead and ResScan and I never did any of the things you describe in your original post and I believe those steps are totally unnecessary.

As the modem does not cover the SD card slot on the S9, there is no need to remove it. I have never touched the modem. The modem is not a phone line modem. It presumably is a cellular modem.

The modem is used by a service to which my DME subscribes, and they have used it two or three times to check compliance - the first time a few nights after I got the S9 to see if I was using it, and again around the times required by Medicare.

In addition to compliance, my DME used the modem with my permission to remotely change my pressure settings once at the request of my sleep doctor, and before I knew how to do it myself. That was a convenience I appreciated at the time, because otherwise in the absence of then knowing how, I would have had to disconnect the whole unit and drive it out to my DME, waited while he changed it, and then driven back home and set it back up on the nightstand and reconnect it, etc.

There is a blue ring around the antenna stub on the modem, and it flashes intermittently when the modem is in use. It is totally silent.

I wouldn't worry about it. It is a nice feature, and I appreciate them having included it.

Best regards, Nate

PS - It is always a good idea to lock your card before inserting it into your computer and unlock it before re-inserting into your S9, but it has nothing to do with being stealthy about reading your info off your card. It is just a good precaution against your computer inadvertently writing anything to the card or accidentally erasing anything from the card.

Also, I just completed my fourth month in therapy and I still have the modem connected and I hope they leave it on my machine indefinitely, because I am fortunate to have a very fine DME/LPT and if there was an emergency requiring my doctor to order a change in some setting and I was unable or incapacitated from making the change, I like the like the idea that it could be done remotely ASAP. If I had one of the lousy DMEs some others suffer with, then of course I wouldn't feel this way.

My apologies for the radio silence, things were a little hectic for a while!

Pugsy wrote:I wonder if you could contact Resmed and get a straight answer out of them??

I spoke with ResMed's tech support, and they confirmed what most of us already suspected - there is no conflict between the wireless modem and the SD card. Both can be used concurrently as data gathering tools without any problem whatsoever.

Pugsy wrote:How long are you going to be in the compliance checking time period? They will remove the modem once compliance requirements have been met.

My DME confirmed that the wireless modem is really only to monitor compliance and that I should be getting a package in the mail soon, with instructions on how to return the module after the mandatory 30-day compliance period.

NateS wrote:Hawkeye,

I have an S9 ResMed and it has a modem on it and I take the SD card out every morning to record my data in SleepyHead and ResScan and I never did any of the things you describe in your original post and I believe those steps are totally unnecessary.

Many thanks, Nate, for clarifying what has been posted elsewhere and for your valuable inputs. I was planning to reach out to you since you seemed to be the only person to have experience with both the wireless module and the SD card and who has posted anything about said experience on this forum, but you beat me to it!

I am very happy to report that I have successfully installed ResScan and now have access to detailed data - I keep the SD card inserted in the unit and plan to be diligent about transferring the data to my PC regularly. Will also follow Nate's advice on locking and unlocking the card... for data integrity, and not stealth, reasons!!

Btw, I inserted the SD card into the unit today after more than a fortnight's usage and, when I transferred the data to my PC, was pleasantly surprised to find that the latest versions of the S9 AutoSet apparently retain detailed usage data for a pretty long time... I now have detailed data dating back to April 23, the day I first started using the xPAP!!

Hawkeye... I just stumbled across your post and was pleasantly surprised! I too, am serviced by North Atlantic Medical, and was told the same thing (perhaps by the same person). I'm glad you spoke to ResMed Tech support... I'm using an SD card concurrently with the wireless module as well. Have you had any succcess with NAM?

To others-- it seems the S9 Wireless module was developed with KORE technologies, and sends data as short SMS' after each night of sleep... more info can be found here:
http://www.m2mglobal.com/pressrelease_2 ... dKORE.html

I have a ResMed AirCurve 10 and it has both a modem and the SD card. I also had both on my Resprionics System One Plus. They never interfered with each other and the modems were wireless (no phone line). I would plug and play.