CPAP.COM September Newsletter

Just thought I'd bring this to everyone's attention in case you haven't seen it yet.

Thanks again, Johnny for all the great things that you folks do for us.

So much for those nay-sayers who claim there isn't any overhead in Internet-based businesses......

Den


https://www.cpap.com/DisplayNewsletter/24

Den,

Thanks for pointing that out. Interesting reading!

Thanks for the link, Den!

You're exactly right:

"So much for those nay-sayers who claim there isn't any overhead in Internet-based businesses......"

When you look at the list of services cpap.com provides, whether a person buys a product from them or not, I'd add:

So much for those nay-sayers who claim there isn't good support from internet-based cpap retail stores......

Wulfman wrote:So much for those nay-sayers who claim there isn't any overhead in Internet-based businesses......

If only those nay-sayers could be persuaded by facts . . .

Regards,
Bill

Also... so much for those (at ResMed) who say that the internet sellers are only taking the quick buck and running.

Bottom line is those cpap.com services educate many of us and encourage compliance. As others have said, it would be nice to compare compliance rates among CPAP users here versus users who exclusively visit the brick-and-mortar DME providers. I have personally retrieved vastly more information and support at cpaptalk.com and cpap.com than I have at my local DME.

So the crazy thing is that many of us become so well informed, that we actually started exercising our knowledge. We even became so bold as to find out why our original equipment wasn't working. Then we became bold enough to think for ourselves as well-educated patients who behaved like consumers of all things. We actually started exercising equipment choices. However, that kind of educate-yourself, think-for-yourself, choose-for-yourself paradigm has traditionally fit the consumer model much more than it has ever fit the patient model.

Patients have traditionally been encouraged to follow the advice of their health care providers---including DME providers. So the brick-and-mortar DME providers are supposed to ask questions to assess and improve your therapy. Mine never did. Then if patients are lucky enough to be asked, we just might give the right feedback and be allowed an equipment change, of which we would accept at face value for lack of knowing any better. My local DME asked if I would mind settling for a large mask since they didn't have my correct size in stock. That's the DME model that we are expected to benefit from.

Heaven forbid that I should have come here where scientists, nurses, teachers, MIT professors, pharmaceutical researchers, RTs, dentists, engineers, MDs, and a vast army of helpful and experienced CPAP users should all converge on the primary purpose of helping others with both CPAP compliance and equipment choice. Heaven forbid that I should behave like a well-informed consumer who also happens to be an OSA patient.

Yea, right... For many of us going back to our local brick-and-mortar DME's is like stepping back into the Dark Ages of CPAP therapy. My own 100% compliance rate had to do almost exclusively with Internet retailers and their support channels. The information and support I received through my local DME was virtually non-existent. But to their credit, my local DME did adhere to the part of the traditional DME support model that entails charging double and triple for their non-existent added value. At least they didn't get the entire supportive-DME-model wrong.

The information we're receiving from the corporate CPAP alliance regarding what is in the best interest for the patient is clearly not accurate. The big question in my mind is whether that information is inaccurate simply because the corporate alliance hasn't a clue about what's really happening (or not happening) in the brick-and-mortar DME sector? Or rather, is that misinformation strategically presented as well-polished public relations rationale, to justify the politics at hand of wooing mega-sized DME providers? If the second case is true, then it is so ironic that the alliance's well-chosen rhetoric claims to be in the best interest of the patient, when in reality almost no patient I have encountered seems happy.

Gotta love when corporations act in our best interest by taking away choices... I usually try to stay out of the political and business oriented posts, but this utter corporate nonsense is getting under my hide so to speak. Enough said from me on the topic.

-SWS wrote:Or rather, is that misinformation strategically presented as well-polished public relations rationale, to justify the politics at hand of wooing mega-sized DME providers?

It's that. (imho... )

SWS wrote:

Gotta love when corporations act in our best interest by taking away choices... Rolling Eyes Confused I usually try to stay out of the political and business oriented posts, but this utter corporate nonsense is getting under my hide so to speak. Enough said from me on the topic.

you are waay too kind SWS corporate nonsense is right, when I first read that ResMed press release of their intentions and reasons why, I said to myself these guys must not have a sharp tool in the shed.

I don't have medical insurance due to outsourcing, even when I did have it I still purchased my equipment on my own directly from cpap.com. That included a Spirt and numerous ResMed mask interfaces. While their machines are pretty decent their mask interfaces always seemed to have the edge in quality and function and reason I have continued purchasing them over and over since going on cpap more than 5yrs now. While I couldn't use their machine I do prefer their masks.

That is until I read of their intentions to penalize me 40% for being a customer.

Had they gone through with that policy, they would have lost this customer if only in spite. Right now I bet I have at least 3 UMFF's, a couple Activas, several UltraMirage's and even a Swift.

As for the Resmed Executive that thought up this campaign?

Alright Snoredog, Pull over!

Under the laws of Texas, pictures of price fixing executives are not to be made internet accessible in our fair state. CPAPTalk.com, I demand that you scrub that picture from your site. I am and remain...

DME Police

I had heard corporate executives were increasingly taking up yoga. Talk about mind-bending experiences! .

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