Seems everyone has Cpaps now

[chunkyfrog]

I think one of the biggest mistakes doctors make is to look for the obesity first;
even though it may only be a symptom of untreated apnea due to airway structure.
It is easy to see an obese person and think, "He(she) might have apnea."
It is a lot harder to ask the questions to diagnose before there are overt symptoms.
There needs to be better protocol for early diagnoses.

[Mary Z]

Since I was diagnosed last month I've been telling all my friends ---- and to my surprise LOTS of my friends have apnea and cpap machines. They are not overweight. It kind of reminds me of the TMJ panic of years ago or the Vitamin D panic of today. Do you think that the number of people with apnea is greater than the number of people without apnea. Now I'm beginning to wonder if most people over 40 would be diagnosed positive if tested. Have you found that many of your friends have apnea?

I only have three friends with sleep apnea, one has stopped using her machine- I don't know why. I think most people do not have sleep apnea, the percentage I remember was 5% or 10% of the population, and I imagine that's only a guess. I'm glad I had no trouble with my PCP ordering a sleep study because of really excessive daytime sleepiness. I had only "mild" sleep apnea, but severe subjective symptoms. CPAP was offered as an alternative along with wait and see, but I was so miserable (could not drive half the time, fell asleep in appointments, fell asleep during breakfast, long naps) I jumped at the chance for a CPAP. I still have hypersomnia according to a MSLT and take Nuvigil, but it's not nearly as bad as it was. Ironically I also have vit D deficiency, hypothroid, and had B12 deficency .
I have to laugh when I visit the sleep doc at the people nodded out in the office.

[archangle]

Most people who snore are on the edge of apnea in some sense. How many people have you heard who snore? Some may not be bad enough to need treatment, but a lot of them do need treatment. Many snorers who don't need treatment now will need it later.

I listened to may dad snore and stop breathing in his sleep for many years and it never registered. I really should have made the connection and nagged him earlier, but I grew up listening to it and it really didn't register in my mind. He did finally get some heart problems and got CPAP, but he was old enough that I'm not really that sure apnea had anything to do with it.

Insurance companies really should organize a free SPO2 or home pseudo sleep study as a screening tool and encourage any of their policy holders to get it. These things cost almost nothing to do if done right. They should be able to organize a really good deal with a company to mail the equipment to the patient and let them run the test.

The cost of untreated apena is so high that a smart insurance company would not really think about the cost of CPAP. They should also ride herd on their in network DMEs to deliver a good machine and really work with the customer to make the therapy work. There are the wireless or wired CPAP modems, but it would be really easy for the insurance company to get someone to write a PC program that would let you plug your SD card into the PC once a month or whatever and securely send the data to your doctor with no cost for an additional modem.

By the way, if you search the web, you can find the sleep test qualification info for many insurance companies.

[jess]

I'm going to cut your insurance idea and send it to BCBS. Maybe I should send it with my appeal.

[archangle]

I'm going to cut your insurance idea and send it to BCBS. Maybe I should send it with my appeal.

Leave out the bit about finding the sleep test qualifications online.

There may be some hope. A number of insurance companies have done some things like have no deductibles for certain diagnostic tests.

[chunkyfrog]

Free screening--what a concept!
With actuaries working full-time for the insurance companies, I'm surprised they are not doing this already.
If I owned an insurance company, I would do it in a minute.
It is all about money. duh!

[archangle]

Free screening--what a concept!
With actuaries working full-time for the insurance companies, I'm surprised they are not doing this already.
If I owned an insurance company, I would do it in a minute.
It is all about money. duh!

Unfortunately, the MBAs run the company. The financial benefits of free screening and liberal CPAP policies take more than 6 months to show up on the books, so they don't exist.



For that matter, maybe untreated apnea causes enough early deaths of older patients that it saves the insurance company money in the long term to not do CPAP. Unfortunately, I'm NOT kidding.

[Bons]

I tested negative for sleep apnea about 17 years ago, but I think the data was skewed because I was awake too much during the testing (including being awakened for an exam by a cardiologist during the middle of the night because I was throwing PVC's, which I'd told the tech to expect to see and that my primary doc was unconcerned about them after I'd had a full cardio work-up).

My kid, on the other hand, had a sleep study last night and was put on CPAP an hour into the test. Tech told her that there was no doubt that she needed it. She has polycystic ovary syndrome, and that is often associated with sleep apnea, and her fellow counselors at camp have been complaining about her snoring for the last several summers, so I have no reason to think she's been falsely diagnosed.

[borgready]

Cpap is a correction to a natural flaw in the human body. The process of sleep is needed but it has its long term problems. A persons lifespan would normally be about 40 years. Now with medicine a person lifespan is about 60 to 70years. So cpap acts a crutch to aid a person's ability to breathe when asleep. By the time the body hit 30 years of age alot a degenerative processes are taking their toll on the body. Tiredness is the first sign of sleep problems. Add stress to that and it takes a toll on the body's health. A person can make some bad judgements that can get them killed. The next big problem is accumulative damage to the heart from not breathing when sleeping. A heart attack is usually the final outcome on that. So if you can get in on some the these well know degenerative processes and do things to stop them then you may live longer or live heathier longer. Young people would not bother with cpap. When older people get to the point of having problems they are more likey to use Cpap if it helps their problems. Cpap is not something that is easy to get used to. There are a lot of little problems that keep people from using cpap it. Doctors are willing to hand cpap machines out like candy but they are not willing help in using them. A lot of doctors are just ignorant about sleep. So a lot of people may have a cpap machine, but how many of them actually use it.

[LaCansada]

I am 49 years old and drove my husband out of the bedroom w/my snoring about 20 years ago. He had to sleep in the next room still with earplugs. After hearing that + excessive daytime sleepiness, my doc sent me for a sleep study to rule out OSA. He was stunned at the results. I am a thin Type 1 diabetic and the neck, throat check all came back negative. He said at least 4 times, "you just don't fit the profile". I knew I didn't. Consequently, I delayed in even bring up the problem for at least a year after I started reading about OSA on the internet. I have had my CPAP for 1.5 years and can't live w/o it. I have also had NO follow-up whatsoever. I got the provider manual on-line (from a fellow forum member, bless you) and have adjusted my own pressure to 12, at which point, I have a good AHI. I do agree w/previous poster about the increased prevalence of OSA w/aging and increased lifespan.

[BlackSpinner]

Free screening--what a concept!
With actuaries working full-time for the insurance companies, I'm surprised they are not doing this already.
If I owned an insurance company, I would do it in a minute.
It is all about money. duh!

Unfortunately, the MBAs run the company. The financial benefits of free screening and liberal CPAP policies take more than 6 months to show up on the books, so they don't exist.



For that matter, maybe untreated apnea causes enough early deaths of older patients that it saves the insurance company money in the long term to not do CPAP. Unfortunately, I'm NOT kidding.

A study done in the Netherlands indicated that obesity doesn't cost the health care system more because they generally die earlier and quicker. The question then was whether it was worth getting people to worry about their weight.

[katcw]

My primary care doc sent me for a sleep study. I never did see the sleep doc, which surprised me

[novatom]

This is an interesting discussion. I have never, not once, felt ashamed or shy about my sleep apnea problem. It's not something I have any control over (until now!) so why be ashamed?

[Huh?]

I know this thread is four years old, but I am reading it for the first time. The first page of the thread is excellent, especially the posts by Jess and NightMonkey. (It fell apart a bit on the second page.)

I wonder if any of these people are still active in the forum?

[postitnote]

My primary care doc sent me for a sleep study. I never did see the sleep doc, which surprised me

Mine too. With my study and 3 follow up studies I never saw a sleep doctor. My pcp wrote the orders and then sleep doctor sent results to my primary care who wrote scripts for the DME. I realize that should not have been how it worked but had no clue I could take more control till I found this forum.