On Medicare are machines rented or owned?

[Photomatt]

I don't understand the Medicare policy on durable medical equipment, specifically CPAP machines. The DME said something about renting for the first two months if I understood him correctly.

What is the policy? Does a Medicare patient own a machine after a certain time of renting? Or is the machine always rented?

[jules]

my understanding is 13 month rent to own

there might be further payment for some kind of maintenance agreement at the end of the rental - check it out

I am sure one of the experts will post the information

[BrettAnd]

I'm not the expert Jules mentioned. I cant recite the codes or even where to look for them. I did read the info pack the DME (durable medical equipment) gave me and it said they follow the 13 mos. capped rental set forth by medicare. I was responsible for the copay (20%). Since my personal insurance max out of pocket was met beforehand, I in reality, paid nothing. After 60 days of 100% compliance my personal insurance bought out the equipment and transferred ownership to me. Wish I could help with a more experienced answer. Brett

[LinkC]

My understanding is that they (and you) make monthly "rent" payments for 13 mos. Then you own it. They do that because of the high dropout rate of new CPAP users. My ins (BC) did the same thing, but the term was 10 months.

[DoriC]

Medicare paid the DME 80% of the approved amount and our supplemental ins paid the 20% difference. After 13 months we owned it and no further charges were billed to Medicare. We are allowed a new mask every 3 months if necessary.