The Sleep Industry

[tizzzle]

I'm new to the boards, but certainly not new to CPAP. Been using mine for nearly 15 years. Anyone else out there feel that the industry is shady? You go get your sleep study and then you're sort of on your own. There is no single place to try on and shop around for masks or machines..... Many of the mail order supplies / DMEs are fly by night places, constantly merging, and the employees are in a state of constant turnover like mattress stores. Further, you can go to a DME and pay out of pocket pricing, or "enhanced pricing" if you go through insurance.. I find the whole thing to be a complete racket and exhausting. . Which is why I just buy my straps and parts on AMazon. They have figured out exactly what that markup is with the insurance.

The reason I was motivated to write this is that I am currently on the list to receive a Philips replacement. Coincidentally, my machine crapped out, and I needed something urgently. My DME said, we don't have any in stock. put your name on a list. So after three nights I was left with two options: Go to an ER and have them put a mask on me and spend the night at a cost of 1000s and 1000s of dollars (thank you, insurance) or pay out of pocket in hopes that my health plan will reimburse.
I went with the latter and am anticipating pushback and refusal to pay.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

[Okie bipap]

Many people manage to get by just fine on their own. I kept looking for a backup machine, and managed to snare one for a very reasonable price. People here have always advocated keeping spares of everything. You never know when something is going to break (usually on a weekend). My current machine has 19550 hours on it, so it could conceivably crap out any time now. If it does, I have my backup machine to use until my insurance gets me a new one.