I have reason to believe I have Sleepapnea.

The cost of your surgery would depend on your insurance. It is done as out patient surgery under general anesthesia. You will have the OR charge for the out patient surgery, recovery room charge, lab tests prior to surgery, doctor fee for doing the surgery, and anesthesiologist. Needless to say, it will be several thousand dollars if you do not have insurance. You need to see an ENT specialist to discuss this surgery. When I had mine done several years ago, my insurance paid everything since it was out patient surgery. It was a temporary fix. I am now using a bilevel machine.

They generally don't work, whatever the cost so don't let some ENT MD talk you into anything without doing a LOT of research first.

Okie bipap wrote:The cost of your surgery would depend on your insurance. It is done as out patient surgery under general anesthesia. You will have the OR charge for the out patient surgery, recovery room charge, lab tests prior to surgery, doctor fee for doing the surgery, and anesthesiologist. Needless to say, it will be several thousand dollars if you do not have insurance. You need to see an ENT specialist to discuss this surgery. When I had mine done several years ago, my insurance paid everything since it was out patient surgery. It was a temporary fix. I am now using a bilevel machine.

What's the process of getting my insurance to cover the surgery? Does it require a sleep study? I'm willing to give the sleep study another shot if need be, but I want to weigh in on my options.

You need to talk to your own insce co, they're all different.

I don't remember what it was called but they are developing some kinda implant for sleep apnea that supposed to act like a pace maker and and wake you up or something like that.

tlohse wrote:I don't remember what it was called but they are developing some kinda implant for sleep apnea that supposed to act like a pace maker and and wake you up or something like that.

This is what you are thinking of.

https://www.inspiresleep.com/what-is-in ... apy-works/

""Inspire therapy consists of a breathing sensor and a stimulation lead, powered by a small battery. Implanted during a short, outpatient procedure, Inspire therapy continuously monitors your breathing while you sleep. The system delivers mild stimulation to key airway muscles, and gently moves the tongue and other soft tissues out of the airway so you can breathe during sleep. Using the small handheld sleep remote, simply turn Inspire therapy on at night before bed and off in the morning when you wake up.""

The sample size regarding success rates is limited but at three years which might be dated, sleep apnea events were being reduced by 78%. So hopefully, as they get more date, this will improve.

Undeadmerc3, this might be worth considering if your insurance company will pay for it and you can find a nearby Inspire surgeon. The requirements are you have to have given cpap and or a dental device a fair shot for 6 months. If you meet that requirement, you would then have to have a sleep endoscopy to see if you have the type of obstruction that would be most responsive to the procedure.

Regarding other surgeries, the MMA procedure has the best success rate although it is more grueling.

Anyway, I would strongly urge you to make sure your pap therapy is completely optimized before you consider surgery. But if you feel you have done everything possible to optimize this, then you should definitely do research and decide what your best alternative option is.

49er

PS - Forgot to list the requirements for the Inspire Procedure

1. you have moderate to severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (AHI of 20 to 65)
2, you are unable to use or get consistent benefit from CPAP
3. you are not significantly overweight
4. you are over the age of 22