Medicare rules

[Catnapper]

Well palerider, it is the only place in town that you can get supplies from Medicare. They have the contract and no other DME can provide for Medicare patients. I pay for the insurance so I expect to get the benefits.

What would you do?

Catnapper - Joanie

[chunkyfrog]

I have considered a road trip before--and would again.
The Medicare providers page allows you to expand the radius of your search.
Upper right corner of the page.

[Okie bipap]

When I checked for approved Medicare providers, the list also showed several companies that were in other states. One of these specialized in military and retired military customers. We got my wife's machine from them. I am getting ready to find a local supplier for supplies. Since I am near Oklahoma City, I found several DME suppliers on the approved list. Some of them (Lyn Care, Apria, etc.) I won't bother talking to.

[Catnapper]

As for taking a road trip, I have somehow become a very old person with a variety of mobility issues and other health infirmities, so a road trip puts a serious burden on me. This company has contracted with Medicare to reliably and responsibly supply Medicare patients with medical products. I feel like they should do so.

Catnapper - Joanie

[Pugsy]

This company has contracted with Medicare to reliably and responsibly supply Medicare patients with medical products. I feel like they should do so.

Then you are just the girl to put their feet to the fire and make them earn their money. You go girl.

[Catnapper]

Pugsy, I can only fight for myself, not the many other people this company fails. If I had accepted what the last person said, I would not get the new machine my doctor ordered that I need. Most people who use Medicare have gotten older and some of them can be misled or confused by the representative of a DME or someone on the phone with a scam.

Doesn't it make you angry when people dishonor and take advantage of seniors? Think of what happens to older people who have no family members to care for them. When my mother reached her later years, dementia affected her ability to understand the actions of phone salesmen. No telling how many things she bought that she didn't need. She didn't have much money, but she gave to every charity that called her. They should all be ashamed. My sister lived close to her and helped in every way that she could.

Able-bodied people don't begin to understand the difficulties that people with disabilities or handicaps have. Walking from the car into the grocery store can cause enough pain to make someone cry.

I don't expect everyone to be kind and compassionate. That won't happen. I do expect that a company contracted to Medicare should deal honestly and carefully with the people who rely on them for the medical supplies they need.

Off my soapbox.

Catnapper - Joanie

[Pugsy]

Yes, it does make me very angry when anyone gets taken advantage of.
Seniors seem even more vulnerable because they tend to assume that anyone in the medical profession walks on water. It's the culture that they were brought up in...you don't question the doctors or nurses because they are never wrong and always have your best interests at heart. How so wrong that is.

I have an advantage in that I worked in the system all my life. I learned a long time ago that none of them walked on water and I learned it was perfectly okay for me to ask or question anything I was told.
And it probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I pretty much speak my mind to any of them. They are no better than the next person and they certainly don't walk on water.

When I get lied to...I have zero tolerance for that. No excuse for blatant lies and no excuse for incompetence either.
My first DME got fired for telling me a blatant lie about the machine they wanted to supply.

[palerider]

Well palerider, it is the only place in town that you can get supplies from Medicare. They have the contract and no other DME can provide for Medicare patients. I pay for the insurance so I expect to get the benefits.

What would you do?

Catnapper - Joanie

I'd look at Chunkyfrog's link for other medicare suppliers that would ship you your supplies, and stop rewarding the crappy people with money.

[chunkyfrog]

Just don't order from Apria.

[Catnapper]

When Medicare first required the change to a special contract DME in our area, I had no choice but to use a mail order supplier as no company here had a contract approved. I hated the way they worked. Even though I have to fight for everything with the local DME we now have, I do better with them. They do some of their supplies from a mail order out of town office. If you get supplies like cushions and filters on a regular schedule, they call and make those arrangements. The only time I go to the actual store would be when I want a different mask and they have to fit it before they will let me have it.I prefer to go to my doctor's office to have a mask fitting and then they fax an order to the store.The last time I did that, I got a copy of the fax to take with me. When I got to the store, they had my supplies in a bag ready to go. Fortunately I checked the bag and they had the wrong mask in it. They said they never got the new order. When I showed them my copy, somehow it also magically appeared in their computer. They told me rather rudely to sit down because they had to make lots of changes in the paperwork. My fault, you know.

When my husband got his machine, they told me it did not have auto-start. Can you believe that? Then they told me his machine did not come with a heated hose. It did. I had to pitch a fit to make them look it up and see that it did come with a heated hose, and get it for him. They try to give you a cheaper version but charge Medicare the higher price.

How many more stories do you want? I have several more.

I have little confidence that a mail order arrangement will be much better. The contracts go to the lowest bidder and then they can't pay employees enough to put up with people like me who insist on getting what they need. I have gotten old, but I continue to be stubborn. I don't suffer fools gladly.

Catnapper - Joanie