My Doctor's staff are not happy...

[deerslayer]

Ah Another Chapter in the Ongoing Saga of the CPAP Police I Picked up my Sparkling New Machine Today at the DME.
There I Patiently sat Through Their REQUIRED Intro Speech Knowing Full Well I Was Licking My Chops to Get Into the Clinition Settings, I Have Them Trained Well
After All who is Going to Look at Our #’s to Monitor and Advocate in Behalf of Our Well Being ? They Can Either Look the Other Way or Take the Lower Road and Slap Us on the Wrist

[BlueDragon]

When I went to pick up my CPAP machine, we went through the standard 1+ hour spiel in 10-15 minutes as I could tell him what he was going to say next. My wife has had a CPAP for 9 months, so I was pretty aware of all the details.

When it came to clinical menu items, he said he "wasn't allowed" to tell me how to do that and would cover his eyes while I did it. All in a very friendly, supportive way.

Later, when we went back to the same DME to swap my wife's CPAP brick for an APAP, he wasn't there and we had to deal with a sales manager from the main office. Who proceeded to lie to us about the difference between different AUTOSET models.

It depends a lot on the individual RT!

[Janknitz]

Not criminal violation, but that doesn't mean it can't go to court (even if the doctor prevails in the end).

A doctor would never, ever take a patient to court over this.

[ChicagoGranny]

Not criminal violation, but that doesn't mean it can't go to court (even if the doctor prevails in the end).

A doctor would never, ever take a patient to court over this.

Exactly. You don't sue your customers.

Just don't ever sue the doctor. The defense will be you don't follow the prescription. Your case (or your heirs' case) will be kicked out.

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

Not criminal violation, but that doesn't mean it can't go to court (even if the doctor prevails in the end).

A doctor would never, ever take a patient to court over this.

Exactly. You don't sue your customers.

Just don't ever sue the doctor. The defense will be you don't follow the prescription. Your case (or your heirs' case) will be kicked out.

Interestingly enough, I haven't heard a peep out of them since that call. I do have a scheduled appointment with my Doc next month, so we'll see if he brings it up.

[ChicagoGranny]

I do have a scheduled appointment with my Doc next month, so we'll see if he brings it up.

I'm betting he is not even aware of what his staff did.

[palerider]

I do have a scheduled appointment with my Doc next month, so we'll see if he brings it up.

I'm betting he is not even aware of what his staff did.

Might want to make doc aware of his staff trying to drive away customers

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

A small update on this sordid tale.

I received an email from the respiratory sleep person at my doc's office. It states that they changed the minimum pressure remotely on my Airsense to 7cmH20. It looks like the doctor was ok with changing the prescription from 5cmH20 to 7cmH20, but I had already nailed 8cmH20 as my preferred minimum. So now it's back down to 7. I have an appointment with the actual doctor tomorrow and I'm going to bring this up. This seems to be turning into a "We have absolute control over your machine and we will change the pressure back to the prescription remotely if you make changes to it."

Either that or I'm just taking it offline, but I need to make sure all of my compliance is done first.

So, to answer some question about whether they can or will change your pressure remotely: Yes, they can, and yes they will. ***Obviously not every place will be like this*** I will be happy once I reach full compliance and I basically own the thing, then I can just throw it in airplane mode and work it up to what's best for ME.

[palerider]

Either that or I'm just taking it offline, but I need to make sure all of my compliance is done first.

No, you don't. you can just haul a SD card in and they can verify compliance that way.

So, to answer some question about whether they can or will change your pressure remotely: Yes, they can, and yes they will. ***Obviously not every place will be like this*** I will be happy once I reach full compliance and I basically own the thing, then I can just throw it in airplane mode and work it up to what's best for ME.

You can refuse them permission to make changes without your authorization.

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

Either that or I'm just taking it offline, but I need to make sure all of my compliance is done first.

No, you don't. you can just haul a SD card in and they can verify compliance that way.

So, to answer some question about whether they can or will change your pressure remotely: Yes, they can, and yes they will. ***Obviously not every place will be like this*** I will be happy once I reach full compliance and I basically own the thing, then I can just throw it in airplane mode and work it up to what's best for ME.

You can refuse them permission to make changes without your authorization.

Good point, hadn't thought of that. I'm meticulous in my record keeping, and that includes the SD card. I even have a backup of the current SD that I make weekly. I think I'm going to do that, just take it offline, change it to what works best for me and then bring my card in at next appointment.

I didn't actually know that, but it's good info. I need to look into that more. Thanks.

[nicholasjh1]

Re: "doing no harm" --does it apply to the DME? (Or just the doctor?)
Keeping the REAL manual and the REAL menu away from patients can, and HAS
caused a LOT of harm!
It is time we held their feet to the fire and taken some of these "rascals" to court!

Actually Agree with this... Class action for
1. requiring "interview" questions when the sleep study clearly shows a cpap need, or anything else where witholding use causes health issues and or death (I mean, this one actually could cost them money.
2. setting auto ranges at a ridiculously low rate and not following up to see the 90% range and AUTOMATICALLY changing the prescription online.
3. Requiring a new prescription for more masks
4. Not allowing patient adjustment prescriptions with training... IE having access to the menu.
5. suing the cpap companies for not creating algorithms to suggest new ranges. (IE they should be able to find the 90% range and suggest a new minimum)

I'm sure there are others.

[nicholasjh1]

Not criminal violation, but that doesn't mean it can't go to court (even if the doctor prevails in the end).

A doctor would never, ever take a patient to court over this.

Exactly. You don't sue your customers.

Just don't ever sue the doctor. The defense will be you don't follow the prescription. Your case (or your heirs' case) will be kicked out.

lol, a doctor did sue me for non-payment. I was referred to a pulmonary office for sleeping pills with the sleep apnea... The first doctor they referred me to didn't have the sleep apnea expertise so she referred me to another specialist in the same office. They charged me for both, which I completely disagreed with since the original referral mentioned what the referral was for, felt the office wasted my time and double charged me. so I refused to pay without correction. Then the sueing ensued.

[ChicagoGranny]

so I refused to pay without correction. Then the sueing ensued.

Your story is suspicious. Medical practices turn non-payment over to collection agencies.

[palerider]

Either that or I'm just taking it offline, but I need to make sure all of my compliance is done first.

No, you don't. you can just haul a SD card in and they can verify compliance that way.

So, to answer some question about whether they can or will change your pressure remotely: Yes, they can, and yes they will. ***Obviously not every place will be like this*** I will be happy once I reach full compliance and I basically own the thing, then I can just throw it in airplane mode and work it up to what's best for ME.

You can refuse them permission to make changes without your authorization.

Good point, hadn't thought of that. I'm meticulous in my record keeping, and that includes the SD card. I even have a backup of the current SD that I make weekly. I think I'm going to do that, just take it offline, change it to what works best for me and then bring my card in at next appointment.

I didn't actually know that, but it's good info. I need to look into that more. Thanks.

The machine, (every machine I know of) stores *at least* all the usage data in it's memory, and will dump that to a fresh memory card when inserted. (I say memory card, because older machines didn't use SD cards.. but still behaved this way.)... The reason being that the insurance companies *demand* to know whether the machine is being used or not (which, honestly, is reasonable), so the manufacturers put usage tracking in all machines, even if that's ALL the machine remembers... (for the no-data bricks).

I know this sort of puts you at odds with your doctors office (maybe not the actual doctor) but I don't give a shit about what they think, I only care about your rest, your sleep, your recovery... Too bad they don't seem to have that same focus.

[D.H.]

A small update on this sordid tale.

I received an email from the respiratory sleep person at my doc's office. It states that they changed the minimum pressure remotely on my Airsense to 7cmH20. It looks like the doctor was ok with changing the prescription from 5cmH20 to 7cmH20, but I had already nailed 8cmH20 as my preferred minimum. So now it's back down to 7. I have an appointment with the actual doctor tomorrow and I'm going to bring this up. This seems to be turning into a "We have absolute control over your machine and we will change the pressure back to the prescription remotely if you make changes to it."

Either that or I'm just taking it offline, but I need to make sure all of my compliance is done first.

So, to answer some question about whether they can or will change your pressure remotely: Yes, they can, and yes they will. ***Obviously not every place will be like this*** I will be happy once I reach full compliance and I basically own the thing, then I can just throw it in airplane mode and work it up to what's best for ME.

Ignore the 7 and put it back to 8, if that's what your comfortable with.