Curious about rentals

I know with my insurance, my APAP will be rented for the first 3 months to check compliance. What happens to the rented machines returned for non compliance?

varies from DME to DME

sometimes they're rented to non-suspecting newbies.

looks like I posted twice.

brians34 wrote:I know with my insurance, my APAP will be rented for the first 3 months to check compliance. What happens to the rented machines returned for non compliance?

I think with MOST insurance they are rented for a period (in my case, 10 months) and then you own it. You insurance doesn't want to BUY something you'll only use for a week or so. Can't say I blame them.

Yes, the returned ones are usually rented to someone else, or used as loaners in some cases. Nothing wrong with that.
A. It's just a glorified blower. Nothing passes thru it but room air. The only issue might be odor from a smoking household.
B. It's thoroughly sanitized before re-use.

I think it's a bit naive to expect otherwise. When you rent a car, do you get a brand new one? An apartment? A tux? (Imagine how many guys have partied, sweated--or WORSE!--in that tux before you got it!)

When they come set up your CPAP, if it ain't in a sealed box, it probably ain't new. But, so what? It's not like it's a mask...or that thermometer at the doctor's office that sick people have been sucking on!

BTW, when you go to a restaurant, do you ever use the fork? (I promise you'll think about this post the next time you go out for dinner! )

I just returned my rental M-Series Pro to my DME yesterday (b/c I cash bought my own) and she says that they "use them as loaners until replacements come in and as trial machines. Since most people's insurance is paying for a new machine after the rental period, almost everyone gets a new one."

That term rental is confusing to a lot of newbies. And I think some of the sleazy DME suppliers stress the term rental to confuse the newbies. Those insurance paid "rentals" are "rent to own" or "capped rentals" if you prefer.

Your insurance doesn't rent you a used CPAP for 10 to 13 months and then pay again to provide you w/a brand new one when the "rental" period is completed. The only exception "may" be a 3 month rental. In that case they "might" provide a used one for 3 months and then switch you to a brand new one - but I seriously doubt that. I would think that that would depend on their return rate.

If they get a lot of returns where people just won't or can't use a CPAP then it might well be cheaper for them to do the "used rental switched to new purchase". But a high compliance failure rate would reflect on their lack of sufficient support, education and advice to their clients which one would THINK might have been cheaper than a high lack of compliance return rate.

But what do I know? I'm just a patient!

We "rented" my husband's machine from about July 2008 till March 2009 before the insurance company decided to buy it out by that time it was all paid for! Not sure what will happen this time when I go to get my machine if needed--probably the same thing.

Not sure about your insurance company, but mine rents for 10 months and then it's yours. My DME always gave new humidifiers and made the insurance pay for them outright and then make rental payments on the rest. When I returned my machine, they had me keep the m-series humidifier and return just the blower since "I already owned it, anyways"

Then again, if you added up all the rental payments plus my 10% OOP that I had to pay, that M-Series Pro w/HH would have ended up costing over $2000. vs the cash price of $600 (est) on cpap.com

klockemy wrote: Then again, if you added up all the rental payments plus my 10% OOP that I had to pay, that M-Series Pro w/HH would have ended up costing over $2000. vs the cash price of $600 (est) on cpap.com

You were paying for not only the machine, but also the right to cancel the deal at any point.
The insurance co. is shouldering the bulk of the cost, and they apparently think it's worth it.
Also, for exactly the same cost to you and your insurance, you could have gotten the top of the line auto-magic-bells-and-whistles machine. They all bill to the same code.

LinkC wrote:

klockemy wrote: Then again, if you added up all the rental payments plus my 10% OOP that I had to pay, that M-Series Pro w/HH would have ended up costing over $2000. vs the cash price of $600 (est) on cpap.com

You were paying for not only the machine, but also the right to cancel the deal at any point.
The insurance co. is shouldering the bulk of the cost, and they apparently think it's worth it.
Also, for exactly the same cost to you and your insurance, you could have gotten the top of the line auto-magic-bells-and-whistles machine. They all bill to the same code.

True, I got the Pro before I was edu-ma-cated. At least they didn't stiff me with a 'Plus'