I know medicare said you can change and I have many DME’s in my area. But after calling and have long talks with them THEY ALL said stay with the original one. I think its because the paper work is over whelming. ( Just my guess ) I am sure there are Good DME’s. I think there is one in my town from they way they talked. But they also said they could not take me since I started with the first DME. I am sure all DME’s are not evil. From reading your post I know that they are those that are concerned and trying to do the right thing. That an encouragement in its self.
Gil
Need Remstar auto clinician's manuals.
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johnnygoodman
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re: christine
Howdy Christine,
Unfortunately, this is not so. If a DME provides a patient with a machine - that patient is locked into getting their machine from that provider for 15 months. At 15 months the patient can choose to CTP (Convert To Purchase) or to go on maintance (the DME is paid a fee every 6 months to service the machine should it break). Now, the letter of the law seems to state that a Medicare patient can leave at any time, but due to fraud, Medicare "frowns" on switching in the middle. For a huge entity that is confusing when they WANT you to do something, it would take longer to fight through the red tape than it would to just conclude the 15 months with a DME you don't like.
From 15 months to ~5 years Medicare will not provide another machine.
If a Medicare beneficiary has had a machine longer than this time, THEN they can choose to select another DME/cpapforseniors.com/etc as they please and start the process again.
As Gil correctly stated, however, they are only partially stuck as they can choose to get supplies from another DME as long as they are within their alotted spans of time to receive them.
At this point, a patient must calculate the costs of the 20% of the Usual and Customary DME prices of his state vs the cost of buying supplies from cpap.com directly. Sometimes Medicare is their best option and sometimes buying direct is - it matter what type of supplies they require and how frequently they prefer to swap out equipment.
We're a service business that's taken on Medicare. Instead of a Medicare business who has taken a look at service. Due to this, we are learning everything we can to try to many our offer more helpful to those with Medicare. I will definately keep the board informed of developments on this front so they can pass on correct information.
Also, Christine - I'm more than open to any specific information you have on this front. If you can prove me wrong, I'd be very happy and interested to learn.
Johnny
Unfortunately, this is not so. If a DME provides a patient with a machine - that patient is locked into getting their machine from that provider for 15 months. At 15 months the patient can choose to CTP (Convert To Purchase) or to go on maintance (the DME is paid a fee every 6 months to service the machine should it break). Now, the letter of the law seems to state that a Medicare patient can leave at any time, but due to fraud, Medicare "frowns" on switching in the middle. For a huge entity that is confusing when they WANT you to do something, it would take longer to fight through the red tape than it would to just conclude the 15 months with a DME you don't like.
From 15 months to ~5 years Medicare will not provide another machine.
If a Medicare beneficiary has had a machine longer than this time, THEN they can choose to select another DME/cpapforseniors.com/etc as they please and start the process again.
As Gil correctly stated, however, they are only partially stuck as they can choose to get supplies from another DME as long as they are within their alotted spans of time to receive them.
At this point, a patient must calculate the costs of the 20% of the Usual and Customary DME prices of his state vs the cost of buying supplies from cpap.com directly. Sometimes Medicare is their best option and sometimes buying direct is - it matter what type of supplies they require and how frequently they prefer to swap out equipment.
We're a service business that's taken on Medicare. Instead of a Medicare business who has taken a look at service. Due to this, we are learning everything we can to try to many our offer more helpful to those with Medicare. I will definately keep the board informed of developments on this front so they can pass on correct information.
Also, Christine - I'm more than open to any specific information you have on this front. If you can prove me wrong, I'd be very happy and interested to learn.
Johnny