DME/online/insurance question

Healthcare In-Network covers 85% of eligible expenses after deductible (which I met months ago)

Out of Network covers 65% after $800 deductible, which I've barely touched.

I'm not looking for brick and mortar. Online is fine, so long as it's in-network. All the standard online sites are out of network.

widmark wrote:Healthcare In-Network covers 85% of eligible expenses after deductible (which I met months ago)

Out of Network covers 65% after $800 deductible, which I've barely touched.

I'm not looking for brick and mortar. Online is fine, so long as it's in-network. All the standard online sites are out of network.

Some forum members have been recently mentioning some entity they've been using but I can't remember which one it is.
Perhaps some of them will come forward with the name.

When I was working, my deductible was $750, which I never met except for 2005 when I had my sleep study and all that went with that. Not only did I never meet it in the other years, I never even touched it. So, after I started this therapy, I figured I could buy LOTS of stuff for $750 every year, which I did (actually it was usually much less than that).


Den

.

Have you considered an in-network brick & mortar dme that offers auto ship or email reorder? You can still utilize your benefits and the billing is done.

Yes. I have no problem with brick & mortar! I just want to find one that won't mess up my order and be impossible to deal with.

I have NO qualifications other than ANY in-network UHC DME that people have had an ok experience with!

Versus is an online service that has worked well for me.

They work with multiple insurance companies [including Medicare] and cover a wide geographic range.
I do not see United Healthcare on their list except in relation to Kansas: UHC Community Plan of Kansas.

You might consider contacting your human resource department, United Healthcare, and Versus to see if you can encourage United Healthcare to contract with Versus. Worth a try.

http://verushealthcare.com/insurance

Also: My DME is actually N2Sleep in Pleasanton. About 2 or 3 months ago they contracted with Versus to handle their supplies. I don't know how many other DME's have this arrangement. When I order supplies I am able to contract directly with Versus and bypass my DME, N2 Sleep.

I have UHC and have been using Lincare. My local Lincare office is pretty good to deal with. The Resp. therapist there is very good. Their billing dept, that's another story, not very impressed with them. But the billing problems seem to have improved to an acceptable level. I just picked an in network DME and gave them a chance. That's really all u can do. Local offices are going to vary from location to location. Hope you find a good one. The supplies that get shipped from the Florida Lincare warehouse have all been correct so far and I get them on a timely basis.
I picked Lincare because they are #1 in network, and #2 nationwide and have a lot of offices. I figured since we travel a lot, that would be helpful to have a lincare office available if needed when I was out of town.
My other option in network was Apria. I called Apria's local office and was not impressed with my initial contact with them. When I called the local Lincare office the first time, they seemed more responsive, so I went with Lincare.

I'm just hoping to find an in network DME that isn't incompetent

If you find one, let US know.

Seriously, there are some local offices of national chains that are OK, but most are not. If your insurance lets you and you find a DME that's still run as a small business, not affiliated with a larger company, that's your best bet. But thanks to Medicare's competitive bidding, most small providers went under, and the big players are big, inefficient, impersonal, often incompetent, and they don't care. They work on tight margins, so they'd rather not have your business than to spend time and money to give good customer service.

Like I said, there are some outliers, but finding a good one is like a needle in a haystack. When figuring out your out of pocket costs between using a contracted DME and going on your own, you have to figure in the hassle and headaches you will have dealing with mostly incompetent DME's.