How to get a compliance letter when you don’t have a sleep doc??

[jaybee72]

Ok, so I’ve been using a cpap daily since September 2007, and the last official sleep related thing I’ve done is got a prescription update begrudgingly from the pcp I had then (about 2012). He wanted me to do a new sleep study then, and I said no. There no point in that when I was using an autos that did it every night. I showed him the recent data and he wrote a prescription for an auto. He retired not long after.

Now I am a school teacher and last fall got my CDL to drive a bus for own field trips. At the initial physical for that the doc asked if I used cpap, I said every day!, and nothing else was mentioned. This summer the school district brought a doc in to do physical renewals, and this doc requires a letter signed by a doc verifying compliance.

My machine shows 1 year of perfect compliance - but what doc will sign off on that without a whole bunch of headaches and things like “you haven’t had a polysomnogram in 19 years, you have to do that first”???

[Grumpy48]

I've never had a 'sleep doc'. My PCP has done everything I needed including compliance verification for Medicare/Insurance. I would presume your PCP could do the compliance letter for the CDL(?)

[jaybee72]

I don’t have one. The one I was using retired, and I have not had one for a while. The local urgent care is closer, faster, and same copay so I have not found a new one.

[Sleepzilla]

CPAP therapy compliance reports are commonly required for pilot (FAA) and CDL (DOT) qualification, for what should be obvious reasons.

More info on CDL/DOT compliance reports here and here.

Your DOT medical examiner can optionally require you to present a signed compliance report from a sleep doc or PCP, mostly just to cover his/her own butt, but it isn't mandatory by DOT or FAA that the report be signed. This in party because the sleep doc or PCP has no way of knowing whether that CPAP therapy data was in-fact generated by you unless they observed you sleeping with that specific machine on those specific dates etc.

Many having simply submitted free open-source OSCAR compliance reports without issue. (See one FAA/pilot example here.)

I see several options for you going forward:
1) Generate a simple OSCAR report similar to this example, and then ask if they will accept it.
2) Show the same OSCAR compliance report to a PCP, and ask if they'll recognize and sign it accordingly. (Sounds like it's probably time for you to find a new PCP anyway.)
3) Engage an online DME or telehealth provider to review your machines' therapy data and generate a compliance report. (Here's one example that came up with a quick Google search.)

Hope this helps!

[ChicagoGranny]

Sleepzilla

Good, detailed advice.

I don’t have one. The one I was using retired, and I have not had one for a while. The local urgent care is closer, faster, and same copay so I have not found a new one.

Take the report and ask them to do it. You don't have anything to lose.

My PCP has been signing mine for years. He retired in December. In January, I did a meet-and-greet visit with a young doctor. He immediately said he would sign any documents or prescriptions I needed.

Good luck!