Fired my first DME...

Well, I already fired my first DME! Even though my insurance company says they will pay 100% up front, no compliance required, the DME my doctor sent me to said I had to do a 13month rental for compliance before they'll buy it. Since my insurance ends in a month and a half that is not acceptable. She told me she didn't know why my insurance company would tell me something contrary to thier company's contract with BCBS. Never mind different plans have different coverages. Oh, the company was Healthfield, whose website's ticker advertises thier earnings.

I asker her what machine they were going to give me - her answer was "uh, a cpap" in the most obnoxious way possible. I smarted right back to her that most machines happen to carry a make and model! She said it would be a Resmed S8 with compliance data only as I pried further..

Next I called a local small (3 offices total) DME my insurance covers, and she said it would be no problem to get it paid for immediately. They also push resmed, but happen to have Respironics machines on order. I told her I wouldn't accept anything without full data, and she said my prescription would have to include that to get it. That merely took a phone call to the doctor to get that added... So, hopefully this DME will work out.

Oh, and billmyinsurance.com won't work with a BCBS HMO, so that option isn't available.

Well glad you found another DME your HMO will work with. Good luck on getting the machine you want in time before your insurance runs out

Christy

IF YOU REALLY WANT A CERTAIN MACHINE....go to your doctor or pulmonologist and hand them the printed picture of it, including proper spelling of its name, tell them to include the heated humidifer and request the doctor write in that you are to get your smart card with the machine. I did that for my wife and she got the exact machine we wanted for her...Respironics BiPap Auto...with smart
card.

ALSO...on my new Respironics SV, I requested the entire contents of the box be sent to me. That means the smart card and providers manual be left in it, AND I got a prescription for the soft ware....Encore Pro 1.8+

ASK your doctor to write that up as a prescription.....my wife's doctor wasn't sure what I was asking for until I handed him 3 months of Encore Pro print outs, graphed to show her titration levels and with that I knew he felt comfortable prescribing what we wanted. We were told, by the DME, that her titration was to be 6 on a CPAP. I forget the exact numbers, but she needed a bipap with settings of EPAP 8 and IPAP 11 or something like that. She has done super on her Respironics machine.

Remember, the DME gets paid the same amount, whether you get the least expensive or the most Expensive machine.

I to have found it much better to use a local Non chain DME. There are good DME 's out there . They are just very hard to find. Congrats on finding one.

I tend to agree w/PapDaddy. I've certainly had much better, friendlier, honest service from a rather small local DME than from a larger DME supplying a 3 state area! And FASTER service as well.