DME: "We'll tell your MD you discontinued therapy."

Catnap · Post by **Catnap** » Fri May 29, 2009 12:39 pm

Returned my leased F&P machine today, which I replaced with a Resmed a couple weeks ago. As if it were a big threat, the DME rep tells me, "If you return this machine, we will notify your doctor that you discontinued your required therapy." I responded that I hadn't discontinued therapy, just using their machine. Rep says, "Well, we have no way of knowing you're still using CPAP, so we will tell your doctor you're not." I pointed out that if they have no way of knowing I'm using it, they have no way of knowing I'm not using it, either. Then he says it's just standard language.

In the end, I made them rewrite the notice they send (which they made me sign), changing "discontinued therapy" to "discontinued using [DME's name] services." Not that it matters, really, but their snippy attitude just irritated me enough to make me want to dig in my heels and give them a hard time about it. The irony is, if they had issued the correct machine to begin with, and been up-front about their billing practices, I'd probably never have returned it at all.

Then, as the clerk was doing whatever in the computer to show the machine had been returned, he turns to the rep and asks, "What about future supplies?" The rep replies, "All CPAP supplies require a prescription, so she cannot buy any supplies here, either." I felt like picking another argument, but I felt like getting out of there and being done with them even more, so I didn't. It's not like I was planning to continue buying supplies from them anyway.

BeanMeScot · Post by **BeanMeScot** » Fri May 29, 2009 12:45 pm

You should have laughed. I would have!

robertmarilyn · Post by **robertmarilyn** » Fri May 29, 2009 12:46 pm

Catnap wrote:Good riddance Catnap...they certainly weren't doing you any favors as they took your money

Then, as the clerk was doing whatever in the computer to show the machine had been returned, he turns to the rep and asks, "What about future supplies?" The rep replies, "All CPAP supplies require a prescription, so she cannot buy any supplies here, either."

This is where you insert an evil laugh

I felt like picking another argument, but I felt like getting out of there and being done with them even more, so I didn't. It's not like I was planning to continue buying supplies from them anyway.

No need to waste your breath...you are going to be getting better therapy and less expensive therapy and they won't be getting your money

mar

Catnap · Post by **Catnap** » Fri May 29, 2009 1:23 pm

I was very tempted to try to buy a can of mask wipes before I left, but I knew I was just being juvenile

provider · Post by **provider** » Fri May 29, 2009 1:31 pm

It is standard practice for a provider to notify a physician when a patient ceases therapy. However, which provider you use is YOUR choice.

Slinky · Post by **Slinky** » Fri May 29, 2009 1:38 pm

Way to go, CatNap!!!! Good on you! That attitude and comment were just plain a red flag!! They were begging for anything you threw their way. You are well shed of that outfit.

Billy6 · Post by **Billy6** » Fri May 29, 2009 3:37 pm

Apria told me I needed a note from the doctor acknowledging that I have discontinued treatment before they would take the rental back. I told them I didn't discontinue it, I just don't want to be extorted by Apria and handed them all the junk back and demanded a receipt. It was no problem at all. The doctor contact racket they run is BS

Trinity101 · Post by **Trinity101** » Fri May 29, 2009 3:46 pm

I would have told them (smiling) that if I need anything in future, they would have to prepare it correctly before they sent it out to me- by curling it up verrrry tightly, and then shoving it right up their....well, you get my gist. I am not a Sagittarius for nothing! I actually told someone that once- they never backtalked me again....
~joan

"these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. " Morpheus, the Matrix, 1999

boston · Post by **boston** » Fri May 29, 2009 3:49 pm

Catnap wrote: "What about future supplies?" The rep replies, "All CPAP supplies require a prescription, so she cannot buy any supplies here, either." I felt like picking another argument, but I felt like getting out of there and being done with them even more, so I didn't. It's not like I was planning to continue buying supplies from them anyway.

umm, that rep is an idiot, you returned your equipment, its not like you surrendered your prescription.

Catnap · Post by **Catnap** » Fri May 29, 2009 3:52 pm

provider wrote:It is standard practice for a provider to notify a physician when a patient ceases therapy. However, which provider you use is YOUR choice.

I still contend it is inappropriate for a provider to notify a physician that a patient has ceased therapy when, in fact, the provider has no reason to think that has happened -- in fact, has a patient standing in front of them saying, "I have not ceased therapy." If a provider wants to notify the physician that a patient has returned the equipment provided for the therapy, that's fine, and that's all that has actually happened, to the provider's knowledge.

Billy6 wrote:Apria told me I needed a note from the doctor acknowledging that I have discontinued treatment before they would take the rental back. I told them I didn't discontinue it, I just don't want to be extorted by Apria and handed them all the junk back and demanded a receipt. It was no problem at all. The doctor contact racket they run is BS

A racket is exactly what I thought my DME was trying to run, threatening to "tell on me" if I didn't continue to work with them. One just wonders how many people are intimidated into falling for it. Even if they did notify my doctor, the bottom line is that it's MY choice whether to accept any given treatment. If I wanted to quit CPAP, I would, and it wouldn't matter what a DME or an MD had to say about it. (I don't want to, by the way.)

BleepingBeauty · Post by **BleepingBeauty** » Fri May 29, 2009 3:55 pm

Bravo, Catnap! You GO, girl! I don't "know" you, but I'm proud of you.

These places had better learn to treat their customers well, or they'll be out of business sooner rather than later (which, now that I think about it, wouldn't be such a bad thing).

jules · Post by **jules** » Fri May 29, 2009 4:01 pm

I would be tempted to send a certified letter to the doctor indicating you were not quitting treatment, sending a copy of the receipt for the purchase elsewhere and asking the doctor if they approved of the scare tactics for this DME. I might be willing to send copies of that letter to a few other choice places too.

sleepycarol · Post by **sleepycarol** » Fri May 29, 2009 7:43 pm

yep, yep, sounds so familiar!!

I was given an M series Plus machine instead of what was written on my script. At the time I took the machine I hadn't found this forum (did that very night) and didn't know the difference. In a couple of weeks I knew I had been shafted and tried to talk to the DME and of course got the run around. I called the doctor and the insurance company and made them aware I was changing DMEs. They said fine. I took their junk back and laid it on the counter and told them they could keep it I was going elsewhere. They told me I would have to sign a paper indicating that I was NOT going to treat my sleep apnea --- I told them no way was I signing that statement. They called my doctor -- she was already for them and when the DME rep became hateful with the doc -- she hung up on the DME (I laughed at the look the DME gave the phone when she realised what had happened). Told me they were going to contact insurance company -- I told her to go ahead as I had already talked to them as well. In the end all I signed was a statement of what I had returned.

timbalionguy · Post by **timbalionguy** » Fri May 29, 2009 8:13 pm

Oh, I just love it when I see greedy people caught red-handed in their greed-- the little curls of smoke out of their ears, that priceless expression, those hateful words. I everyone bagged on their DME's like this, in all areas of therapy, we might just take back our health care system.

Besides the education I have received on xPAP matters here, I have also learned a great deal about how our corrupt health care system works. I guess I am really lucky to have a PCP that realizes that the patient is a partner in therapy. He respects that I have a lot of knowledge in general on things medical. As a result, we work together to make treatment work, not stand back and accept an edict in the form of a perscription. He even offered to let me borrow a CPAP machine he had until I could have my sleep study completed, etc.

rosiefrosie · Post by **rosiefrosie** » Fri May 29, 2009 9:01 pm

Hmmmm, Let's see. Is there not such a thing as a patient bill of rights. The DME is an idiot. I can't believe that came out of their mouths.

Rosie

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