Good Luck Medicare and Medicare Beneficiaries

[vic]

Medicare Beneficiaries Good Luck………..Problems with service call Medicare or new contracted provider. 1-800-medicare

[Janknitz]

You want to elaborate on that???

[vic]

July 1st starts medicares Rd 2 for contracted suppliers. Seems like a mess to me. Was a sincere gesture.

[chunkyfrog]

In my area, competitive bidding only involves mail-order diabetes supplies.
Too often, mail order is too "iffy" for me; so I'm sticking with local RX in network.
Bare-bones plans will leave you with fewer choices. See SHIIP---- BEFORE signing with any insurance.
It will spare you a lot of grief.

[StuUnderPressure]

In my area, competitive bidding also only involves mail-order diabetes supplies. And, I am not diabetic.

So, NO change at all for me.

I will continue to use my local DME for now.

[Janknitz]

Vic, this subject has been covered on this forum already.
It's likely to be a whole new (and unpleasant experience), so please keep us posted about your experiences when the switch is made.

[VikingGnome]

My area includes all DMEPOS. I went to my local DME in June and got all the things I was eligible for in anticipation of the big change. I got a booklet in the mail that says to go to a certain website to see participating contractors in my area. I don't know if it will all be mail order or if we still have some brick and mortar DMEs. Haven't looked it up yet because I'm afraid it will either be crApria or LinDosn'tCare.

Looked them up. There are FOUR in this part of my state. LINCARE and APRIA are two of them. There other two I've never heard of even though they are just 10 miles away from my home. Looks like getting any brand other than ResMed, Respironics, and Fisher/Paykal will be very difficult. This is a problem particularly for MASKS made by other companies than those three.

[MagsterMile]

It looks like my choices for cpap supplies will, be Apria or Lincare. I've called the medicare approv suppliers and none that I would even want to deal with don't accept Humana Advantage Medicare. I've heard so many different versions from my DME and Humana on what I can expect in the way of supplies. First my curr DME said I'm grandfathered in but now recently I'm told that they can be my supplier until November.

[Janknitz]

Good question--what IS going to happen to those in the middle of their capped rental periods ??? Are they going to be forced to swap out their machines to get them from competitive bid providers? I can't imagine Crapria is going to be happy about suddenly having to provide machines to people while collecting only one or two months left on a capped rental.

Keep us posted.

[chunkyfrog]

I believe capped machine rentals can be grandfathered until the rental is over.
One may have to switch for masks/expendables; don't really know.

[VikingGnome]

According to pamphlet sent to me by Medicare, anyone that is still within Rental period with a DME are grandfathered in. That means you can continue using the same DME and continue getting your supplies from your current DME. Once your Rental period is over, you have to change to a participating contracting DME.

[Janknitz]

Thanks for the clarification, Viking.

[archangle]

Be sure to write to your congressmen and complain.

Congress mostly listens to whoever pays them the biggest bribes, but sometimes if enough of the voters complain, they'll listen.

[NateS]

Be sure to write to your congressmen and complain.

Congress mostly listens to whoever pays them the biggest bribes, but sometimes if enough of the voters complain, they'll listen.

Yes, my representatives always quickly send me back beautiful form emails thanking me for my input and then "on the other hand" "sharing" with me some of the canned opposing arguments artfully crafted by their lobbyist-owner-sponsors, and closing by assuring me of what hard work it is going to be for them to arrive at a decision as to how to vote because there are so many good points to consider on both sides of the issue.

Then of course the vote comes up and they always vote in accordance with their lobbyist-owner-sponsors.

Regards, Nate

[NateS]

Be sure to write to your congressmen and complain.

Congress mostly listens to whoever pays them the biggest bribes, but sometimes if enough of the voters complain, they'll listen.

Yes, my representatives always quickly send me back beautiful form emails thanking me for my input and then "on the other hand" "sharing" with me some of the canned opposing arguments artfully crafted by their lobbyist-owner-sponsors, and closing by assuring me of what hard work it is going to be for them to arrive at a decision as to how to vote because there are so many good points to consider on both sides of the issue.

Then of course the vote comes up and they always vote in accordance with their lobbyist-owner-sponsors.

Regards, Nate

The only time(s) I don't hear back from them is when I reply, pointing out the flaws in the opposing arguments they have "shared" with me, and inviting them to write back with a discussion of the points I have raised and to point out to me the errors in my thinking.

I don't hear back from those because their poor staff doesn't know which form letter/email to send me!

Regards, Nate