Dangers of using the CPAP?

For the record, the majority of insce. co's will give you a new machine after 5 yrs. While some machines may 'last' 10 yrs, and it depends on how many hrs you sleep of course, many will not survive that long and you shouldn't necessarily count on that for the future, at least not without a good back-up machine on hand.

My apologies Hannibal. I must have misunderstood. That's great that you got used to it so well! Its amazing to hear all these success stories. I remember the morning my DH came back from the sleep lab, he was so energetic and couldn't wait to get started using the machine. I hope that soon he will feel like this at home too.

Great that the machine is expected to last 5 years. It's certainly a great investment even if the insurance doesn't cover for it. Health definitely comes first!

Please don't take my word about your insce. co - you must check with them!

For people in the US...other countries may have different guidelines..

It used to be that after 5 years (Medicare and some ins) or maybe 3 years with some other insurance meant you could automatically get a new machine even if there wasn't anything wrong with the old one but it seems like now that more and more insurance companies are requiring that the old machine be broke and for it to cost more to fix it.
Even Medicare is leaning that way now despite the fact that the "official" replacement schedule shows 5 years. I have seen some government documents stating essentially "if broken and not fixable" then will pay for a new machine. If it's 8 years old and working just fine so sorry charlie you get to keep using it.

When in doubt always verify with your insurance company. While a lot of them will mimic what Medicare might do they don't all use the same replacement structure as medicare does.
Also it can vary from plan to plan within one insurance company.
Plus they can and do change coverage anytime they want to...so what might have been true last year might not be true this year or next year or 5 years from now.

I have private insurance (from my retirement plan), but they follow medicare rules. I told them that my old machine (from 2009) was broken; they did not ask to see it nor did they ask for any details. I did not mention that my emergency machine (from 2005) was working, since that wasn't the machine of record anyhow. Also, my sleep doc wanted me to have a machine that collected data, and neither of the old ones did.

D.H. wrote: told them that my old machine (from 2009) was broken; they did not ask to see it nor did they ask for any details.

Often someone telling them that the machine is broken is sufficient...they always have to take the word of the DME...no insurance company will ever say "send us the machine and let us decide if we can fix it or not"...they simply don't do that. They rely on the DME to be truthful and take them at their word.

That's great to know! We have recently changed our insurance and the previous one covered the machine whereas the new one doesn't. Who knows if we will be still with the same insurance by the time the machine requires replacement. They were kind enough to replace the mask even though it wasn't covered by the insurance. i think it was the providers fault though for having given my DH the wrong mask.

I think it takes a lot of back and forth till the right fit is found. We won't give up though

Tahera11979 wrote:That's great to know! We have recently changed our insurance and the previous one covered the machine whereas the new one doesn't. Who knows if we will be still with the same insurance by the time the machine requires replacement. They were kind enough to replace the mask even though it wasn't covered by the insurance. i think it was the providers fault though for having given my DH the wrong mask.

I think it takes a lot of back and forth till the right fit is found. We won't give up though

If you don't have mask coverage (or don't expect to meet the deductible), you can get a replacement mask much cheaper on E-bay, Amazon, PriceGrabber, or any similar vendor.

Pugsy wrote:

D.H. wrote: told them that my old machine (from 2009) was broken; they did not ask to see it nor did they ask for any details.

Often someone telling them that the machine is broken is sufficient...they always have to take the word of the DME...no insurance company will ever say "send us the machine and let us decide if we can fix it or not"...they simply don't do that. They rely on the DME to be truthful and take them at their word.

Note than when I got the machine in 2005 (I had insurance of a now-extinct variety), they did want me to "prove" that the old one from 1999 was broken. Fortunately, a letter from the DME stating that the model was no longer supported by the vendor, and thus no "authorized" repair was available, was sufficient.

That's good to know! How often do you usually change your mask on an average?

Tahera11979 wrote:How often do you usually change your mask on an average?

That's going to vary a lot between the various masks and facial oils and their cleaning routine.
.
The plastic part of the mask (like the Amara View shown in your profile) is pretty much indestructible with common sense care so doesn't need to be replace unless it breaks.
The headgear...it can maybe stretch out after repeated use or washings but until it does it doesn't need replacing.
A lot will depend on how it is put on and off as to how much it gets stretched each night...but in general most headgear will last at least 6 months and maybe up to 2 or 3 years with common sense care.

The cushion...facial oils and how it is cleaned/washed can impact its life. Insurance (if you had the coverage) would allow 1 cushion per month but most cushions will last a LOT longer than that with common sense care.
There are ways to extend the life too like boiling in distilled water and baking soda.
I know people using the same cushion for well over a year. I know people who think they can barely make it one month.

I do usually tell people to have at least one spare of each part because you never know when something bad might happen and I guarantee you that it will happen at 11 PM or on the weekend when there's zero way to do anything about it.

Tahera1979 wrote:I have just come across this great forum and decided to read about all of your experiences since my DH has recently started the treatment.

I am now worried since I have read a post that mentioned that the CPAP could be potentially dangerous.

There is not much I can find online on this topic so if anyone knows information about the dangers of using a CPAP machine please do share.

Thank you very much!

CPAP therapy can be dangerous. it has the tendency to keep you alive and this exposes you to many risks, disease, etc. that you would not face if you had died. You should really give this serious consideration. Suppose your DH would die in his sleep a year from now not using CPAP, but because he does he lives and 5 years from now he gets a form of Cancer. This can be directly correlated back to CPAP for keeping him alive long enough to get cancer.

I appreciate the humor!

Great to know the good news...