Awful Sleep Center Rant

[daytona]

It has been incredibly stressful going through the process and red-tape.

Let's ignore how long it took me to get someone to recognize that I may have sleep apnea. I saw the physician on 8/11 and he thought that I should not drive and come in immediately for a sleep study. First available appointment as 8/17, predictably I did not meet the criteria to do a titration the same night. I wait a 4 days to hear anything back and am told that I need to schedule a titration study. The first available appointment is 1 month out!

I then spent almost 2 weeks fighting with them to allow me to do the sleep study at another facility. There was down the street that would have taken me the same day. The hospital refuses to transfer my order anywhere else or give me any of my medical records. My GP suddenly left the practice and I am left with no one to help me. I ask that the GP's office call and request my records from them. I ask to be put on the cancellation list and fill out the HIPAA form. I am unable to work at this point. In the mean time I call every day, multiple times a day.

During one of my calls, I demand to speak to my physican and suddenly a spot opens up for 8/27. I do the titration study and it was awful. She refused to let me try a nose pillow ("people always think they know what they need!") and I started with a nasal mask which was so tight that I had bruises on my cheek the next day. I give up after a an hour and ask for a different mask. She gives me to a full face mask that spends all night farting in my eyes. How they managed to get any real information on the correct pressure is beyond me. I fill out a second HIPAA request.

I was told 10 days for the results, and begin calling every day. After 10 days, I learn that the doctor is only in the office one day a week and did not work on labor day so I need to wait another week for the results. *tears out hair* I get a new GP and have them immediately begin to try to get my records as well since the first one failed. New GP refuses to write a prescription without the sleep study results.

Palerider suggests getting a second hand cpap which doesn't require a prescription. I am now able to work again, hurray! Eventually I get sneaky and pay my father to use his prescription to buy a new AS10 AutoSet for Her. I find a good pressure range (9-12) and am doing pretty well (this is the only bright side and on that I should probably focus on more).

My new GP continues calling every week as do I with no success until 3 days ago. I managed to get a nurse instead of the normal records person and she agrees to give me my sleep summaries. I pick those up and find out that they fudged the dates on my titration study to hide that they sat on it for more than 30 days. My prescription is for 5-10 and I'm quite sure it's meaningless so I am sticking to what I've found to work.

I still don't have any of my medical records transferred and do not have the full reports. I also find out that when I originally talked with my health insurance they incorrectly told me that I don't need to rent. Now that I finally am able to go through a DME to have insurance buy a machine, I find out I do have to rent and because everything has taken so long, I have to pay for January because my deductible will have reset. This has been an expensive year and due to these ******s I have to pay even more soon.

WTF is wrong with people?!

* goes and jumps in a cold lake *

[LSAT]

You're in Chicago...There must be dozens of places to get a sleep study...and dozens of doctors that you could go to to get a prescription for a study. Whenever you get a study or a prescription ...immediately get copies. HIPPA mandates that the patient owns the records.

[Sir NoddinOff]

I just have to say, sometimes you simply have to do what works for you... be your own doctor if you're prepared to do the homework and think you are capable of handling the complex details. Or just take the advice the sleep doctors hand out - maybe it will work and maybe it won't; you can't tell until you are on the front lines with a mask on your face. It's a decision lots of us have had to make. BTW, sleep centers IMO range from terrible to great - and that's just from what I've learned during my time at CPAPtalk. There is no one path that fits everyone, regardless of what the medical establishment wants you to believe. Good luck and keep us informed.

[daytona]

You're in Chicago...There must be dozens of places to get a sleep study...and dozens of doctors that you could go to to get a prescription for a study. Whenever you get a study or a prescription ...immediately get copies. HIPPA mandates that the patient owns the records.

My GP would not prescribe a sleep study insisting that I see a sleep specialist. It took 3 months to get into this one and I didn't know any better at the time and did not think I had sleep apnea. Once things started to go south, I asked the other physicians in the practice to help me out and prescribe the study but none would. By the time I got a new doctor, I had already had both studies done and they were withholding the results and prescription. So yeah I get that there are lots of options and that I should have managed to do better. Not that it matters much at this point.

At this point I've figured out how to get a machine and am using it no thanks to the $9k spent on studies with no results to show for it. Just pissed at how hard it's been and that it appears that I need to pay for lawyer to get the results.

I'll make sure to grow bigger balls for next time.

[daytona]

Sorry I may be frustrated but there's no excuse for my grumbling and rants. This forum is incredibly helpful. Just ignore my previous posts.

[Krelvin]

nice rant... I can relate.

[Janknitz]

Woody you've had such a rough time, but why worry about insurance if you've already got a brand new machine?

[BlackSpinner]

You have a new machine, a good one too. Don't bother with the rental, it is a waste of money and they would probably sell you a cheapo brick for more then you paid for the good one you have. Use your insurance to get supplies.

[palerider]

I'm with BlackSpinner on this... what do you need them for?

alternatively, you can just let it slide till after the first of the year, if you want to get another machine so you'll have a spare.

[sleepy1235]

Don't apologize for your postings. We need apnea patients who are making demands.

[sleepy1235]

The practice of sleep medicine is organized by the idea of cash flow.

They didn't want you to do a sleep study elsewhere and lose the cash flow.

Also, there are medical review boards to whom you can file complaints.

[chunkyfrog]

Unless insurance pays for a machine in their plan year, I found it to my advantage to buy all my supplies out of pocket,
from our hosts, and never spend any money with the local clip joints. (This has changed with Medicare.)
My deductible and the local prices were just to high. Had I used them, I would have spent much more
than I did, --along with the quantity and timing restrictions imposed by insurance,
which would have prevented me from trying enough different masks to find what really works for me.

[angeltink]

Welcome to Illinois. I am in Northwestern IL. Your experience is very similar to mine although I requested copies of my sleep study to be sent to me from the company I had to call to set up the sleep study. Took over a month for an appointment for each sleep study. Regular doctor wants me seeing a sleep specialist or neurologist even though the one that works with the sleep center moved on. The neurologist I called has a secretary who says they take my insurance but then wants to know what color my plan is because they hate bronze patients and would rather not see them due to their $12700 deductible and having to bill them and wait for payment. I was like WTH, you can not discriminate like that if you take my insurance you have to take me as a patient but if you are that ignorant and judgemental I certainly don't want to be seen by the doctor there and I found another one. Found a GP that does sleep studies and is a decent person. Only issue is they want me to use a certain brand of machine they want all their patients to use because that is easiest for them. Not what is best or requested by the patient. Anyway in total it took me 4 months to get my prescription and equipment.

If I were you I would wait till after your deductible is met next year to go in for the equipment you need. The script should be good for a year. Just be glad all the appointments are over for now.