Cheap Sleep Apnea Screening, Diagnosis and Auto CPAP Rx

[johnnygoodman]

Greetings CPAPtalkers,

CPAP.com is working with physicians to bring you a faster, cheaper way to diagnose Sleep Apnea from the comfort of your own home and to be prescribed an Auto CPAP machine should test results merit. It requires no doctor office visit and is currently priced at $150.

More information is available on our CPAP.com SleepStrip product page:

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/slp-sl ... study.html

We're still working on the CPAP.com/physician workflow and want to try this out with only a few patients to start. If you are interested, or if you know of a loved one or cpaptalk newbie who may be, I would appreciate it if you'd let them know about this option.

If you have questions or comments about the SLP Sleep Strip, please post them to this thread.

Johnny

[SelfSeeker]

Johnny,

Sounds like a good ieda. To bad you are not located North of the boarder. I would have used it on two family members.

Greetings concernedinwisconsin,

CPAP.com is currently working on a method that will allow people in your situation to get a home sleep study for $150, if positive be prescribed and purchase an auto CPAP machine. Total cost to you ~$1300 instead of $3000 for a sleep study plus copay and deductible on the machine through insurance.

The sleep study involves wearing a bandaide type device under your nose as you sleep for one night and then sending the device into a physician working with CPAP.com. You take the test at home in your own bed.

You caught us about a week before launch but I'd like to line up test patients. If you are interested, or anyone else who reads this is, email me at johnny@cpap.com.

Johnny Goodman
cpap.com

[Snoredog]

Ole man, my sleep doc will have to sell his Mercedes for a Hyundai. Actually a great concept for those without medical coverage.


Question 1: Can this device detect Central Apnea?

I could see where if this information wasn't available and a patient went on autopap based upon other factors that the autopap could confuse a central event for obstructive and respond adversely with pressure. During a PSG EEG information informs the lab tech that central apnea is present and/or if it is induced by too high cpap pressure.

Question 2: If this device can detect central apnea, is the patient going to use the device after therapy is initiated to confirm its effectiveness?

In this scenario, the patient orders the device, sends it back for diagnosis, receives autotitrating machine. How do they confirm if autopap is effectively treating the patient? Do they get another monitoring device they send back or do they get a SmartCard to send back.

[wading thru the muck!]

Johnny,

Does sleep-strip display show you your AHI at the end of the usage period?

If prescribed, what range do you set the APAP for?

Are prescribed APAP patients encouraged/required to monitor pressure requirements via software and provide results to the prescribing doctor for fine tuning of their APAP pressure range?

The certainly sounds like an excellent way to cheaply get a diagnosis. Thanks for bringing this to the cpap user community.

[Guest]

I will be totally honest.

First off, I strongly disagree with these tests. I had a similar test done myself. The results showed an AHI of 4.8.
I disagreed with the results based on how I felt. I pushed for a full sleep study. Turns out my AHI is just under 80. Just a little bit of a difference there so yes I admit I'm already biased against such tests without a strong disclaimer that they can be extremely inaccurate and that nothing can really replace a full sleep study.

While I understand the point of this website is to sell products through cpap.com isn't it a little misleading to put on the page:
"Sleep Apnea can cost anywhere from $600 to $3000."
without the disclaimer that most insurances cdo over a sleep study - in many cases with a much lower copay? Obviously there are many cases where those prices are accurate but going by the posts on this website there are just as many if not more that there isn't a cost to.
Basically I see it as selling someone something for $150.00 when a better option may not cost anything.

The other item that really bothers me is:
"Your prescription will be valid at CPAP.com or any other cash based website."
Everyone on this website agrees that one of the biggest hurdles to dealing with the various doctors and insurance companies is the inability to go wherever you want. We have to constantly argue that our prescriptions are valid anywhere so why is this prescription not valid anywhere?

All that aside for the cases where an insurance company refuses to cover a Sleep Study or for someone who simply can't tolerate a lab it is a great first step.

[wading thru the muck!]

I had a similar test done myself.

I can't see how you can be critical of this test if you did not use this test when you got the inaccurate results. You have no way of knowing if the one you used was less accurate or not.

As far as your claims about insurance coverage... these tests are obviously geared toward people who do not have insurance or whose insurance will not cover a sleep study. For many of these these people it's likely that they would not get diagnosed at all.

Lastly, I'm sure the prescription could be used anywhere that would accept cash payment since the diagnosis is likely not acknowledged by most insurance companies (as stated by cpap.com).

[cwsanfor]

Wonderful idea. Some people might still prefer or have to have traditional sleep studies, but this opens up options for other people who might otherwise go untreated.

I'm confused about the notion of insurance not "honoring" sleep studies. I can see where some insurance companies might or might not pay for this $150 procedure, but once you get a prescription from an MD for a device, would not insurance cover the purchase of hardware, within whatever coverage limitations they advertise? $150 is less than my deductible+copayment on my sleep study.

[Gerald]

What we're seeing here is the beginnings of the breakdown in the medical monopoly.

Just exactly and precisely why can't people decide for themselves whether or not they want to spend $150....or $3000? Now that we have the Internet, if they get ripped off, they can tell the world.

Whether or not "Dr. Guest" agrees or not is his own business....no one should force him to purchase one service or the other.....and he should not attack me or anyone else who wants to purchase the lower cost service.

When people are free, they can vote with their billfolds......they can purchase what they desire......and they can tell the world if they got a good deal or not. It boils down to "choice"....that's what freedom is all about.....the freedom to choose without coercive pressure from others.

[kteague]

I'm all for anything that enables people with untreated sleep apnea to begin to address the possiblity of having sleep apnea. Several valid questions have been posted, and it obviously could not give the kind of detailed sleep report a lab could obtain. But it beats doing nothing. To the guest who had a bad experience with a "similar" product, first of all, thank you for sharing your data. I want to know any potentially pertinent information. But I also agree that a similar product may not perform at the same level as the product being discussed. Just the disparity between the performance of different brand names of batteries. This item may not be the end-all, but sure sounds like a good starting point. Looking forward to seeing the questions answered.

[Snoredog]

I will be totally honest.

First off, I strongly disagree with these tests. I had a similar test done myself. The results showed an AHI of 4.8.
I disagreed with the results based on how I felt. I pushed for a full sleep study. Turns out my AHI is just under 80. Just a little bit of a difference there so yes I admit I'm already biased against such tests without a strong disclaimer that they can be extremely inaccurate and that nothing can really replace a full sleep study.

While I understand the point of this website is to sell products through cpap.com isn't it a little misleading to put on the page:
"Sleep Apnea can cost anywhere from $600 to $3000."
without the disclaimer that most insurances cdo over a sleep study - in many cases with a much lower copay? Obviously there are many cases where those prices are accurate but going by the posts on this website there are just as many if not more that there isn't a cost to.
Basically I see it as selling someone something for $150.00 when a better option may not cost anything.

The other item that really bothers me is:
"Your prescription will be valid at CPAP.com or any other cash based website."
Everyone on this website agrees that one of the biggest hurdles to dealing with the various doctors and insurance companies is the inability to go wherever you want. We have to constantly argue that our prescriptions are valid anywhere so why is this prescription not valid anywhere?

All that aside for the cases where an insurance company refuses to cover a Sleep Study or for someone who simply can't tolerate a lab it is a great first step.

Grow some balls, log in Dr. Cohen

[wabmorgan]

This is a good idea, especially for someone who doesn't have insurance and can not afford the $3000 price tag of a sleep test at a hospital.

I have a relative that I suspect has OSA and is in this scenario; she doesn't have insurance and doesn't have $3K for the test.

[StillAnotherGuest]

Sleep Strips? That sounded like one of RG's inventions!

I don't see a lot of data on Sleep Strips, but this editorial comment turned up in a search:

Sleep Strips

In talking about affordable, one the many questions is "How many of the 16 PSG channels can I afford to leave off?"

I can't see the answer as ever being "15".
SAG

[wading thru the muck!]

Sleep Strips?

In talking about affordable, one the many questions is "How many of the 16 PSG channels can I afford to leave off?"

I can't see the answer as ever being "15".
SAG

Funny thing is... for all the nay-sayers out there, keep in mind that some day, when something like the sleep-strip is proven to be accurate enough in the diagnosis of sleep apnea, the insurance companies will likely ONLY pay for this type of "study."

[NightHawkeye]

The Sleep Strips look to me like a complete waste of time. Funny thing is normally I'm all in favor of cheap diagnostics, so I'll attempt to outline why I would recommend against them to anybody that asked my opinion.

Characteristics of a good diagnostic test:
1) Provide unequivocal results, accurately diagnose and never fail to diagnose
2) Convenient and easy to use
3) Low cost

For a myriad of reasons it appears that the sleep strip fails to meet desired characteristic 1) above. Sleep Dave pretty well detailed this in the reference provided earlier. Additionally, it strikes me that the sleep strip falls in the category of voodoo medicine - a magical device with inner workings largely concealed from the world. In this respect, rather than enabling patients to take charge of their health concerns, it actually plays into the current system with the physician being totally in charge and forces the patient to accept whatever arbitrary diagnosis the strip provides.

The real reason I'm opposed to the sleep strip is that a cheaper, easier, and much more accurate diagnostic tool is available - an oximeter study. If sleep apnea is a problem, then desaturations will be present in the oximeter data, no question about. An oximeter will not fail to diagnose sleep apnea. In comparison, the sleep strip, according to Sleep Dave, is highly prone to misdiagnosis.

I'd suggest that CPAP.com would provide much better service to their customers if they simply made oximeters available for rent.

Regards,
Bill

[gecko1977a]

honestly i think it would be a great tool for those who are not certain that their insurance would cover a full PSG. My insurance coverd 90%, leaving me with close to $400 in bills after the two studies, not to mention the doctor's fees