my spin on why resmed won't sell autoscan in USA

My Dme told me that they carry mostly ResMed now because they had too many Respironics models get sent back for defects and repairs. She said that the corporate office tried to originally swing them to more Respironics but the rate of problems was too high. Whether or not that is BS is beyond me..just passing along what was told to me when I asked about different types of machines.

Mary

i'm just being a smart aleck

Rabid1 wrote:I talked with my sleep doc last week and he had a different take on ResMed's policy change.

He said ResMed wants CPAP's & supplies to be available to the general public without a prescription. When the FDA balked at that, ResMed's strategy was to raise their prices and make their products more difficult to obtain online. They are basically saying "if you won't let us sell our products the way we want, we will make the government pay through the nose".

That explains the reason for the discrepancy from the US compared to the rest of the world.

blarg wrote:An easy way to debunk your doctor's theory is to ask a simple question of our Aussie board members. Do you have to have a scrip to buy a ResMed machine in Australia? If so, then they should be punishing the Aussie government just like they're punishing the US gov.

Excellent question, blarg! I hope we hear from an Aussie board member with the answer.

I don't understand the speculated logic that is presented in this thread. Resmed is punishing the U.S. government by raising Internet prices??? That somehow hurts the U.S. government?

Resmed is making it financially harder for people to get CPAP equipment... because they are mad that the FDA is not making CPAP equipment easier to get???

I never was an International trade embargo genius to be perfectly honest, and I just don't get this speculated trade strategy either. I'm throwing my cards in with the long-standing "Resmed strategically favors the brick and mortar" theory. More importantly I don't think any Aussie forum members are ever going to be able to answer on behalf of Resmed's internally-derived business strategy decisions.

Anonymous wrote: i'm just being a smart aleck

Could be....... But this is one of those subjects that gets the old blood pumping in some of us.....

Den

I think the logic (and again, it's not mine) is that raising their prices, and forcing the consumer to the B & M's, the feds are going to be shelling out more money. Ballsy move if that's the case.

Rabid1 wrote:I think the logic (and again, it's not mine) is that raising their prices, and forcing the consumer to the B & M's, the feds are going to be shelling out more money. Ballsy move if that's the case.

Better re-emphasize what is perhaps my most germane point in all this...

-SWS wrote:I never was an International trade embargo genius to be perfectly honest, and I just don't get...

blarg wrote:If so, then they should be punishing the Aussie government just like they're punishing the US gov.

Mu!

As I've noted here before, there are systemic issues in the way public healthcare is delivered in the US of A which (fortunately) just do not occur in other parts of the world.

Cheers,

Bill

Strange thing was, at my DME I work for, ResMed raised THEIR prices to us so high, it was actually more than what we were retailing their products for. Therefore, everything we sold was at a loss to us. We eventually (quickly, too) phased out Resmed (except for special orders) and have went exclusively with Respironics for machines and masks (We have some F&P too, which I like). If their strategy was to make more $$ with higher prices, it didn't work with us. We just dropped them altogether.

[quote="BrianRT"]Strange thing was, at my DME I work for, ResMed raised THEIR prices to us so high, it was actually more than what we were retailing their products for. Therefore, everything we sold was at a loss to us. We eventually (quickly, too) phased out Resmed (except for special orders) and have went exclusively with Respironics for machines and masks (We have some F&P too, which I like). If their strategy was to make more $$ with higher prices, it didn't work with us. We just dropped them altogether.

BrianRT wrote:Strange thing was, at my DME I work for, ResMed raised THEIR prices to us so high, it was actually more than what we were retailing their products for.

Brian, that is an interesting anecdote. And it's not the first time I've heard that either. I think the theory I've heard (whether right or wrong) is that Remed administers both preferred and non-preferred price structures to various DME's in the U.S.

Perhaps the Resmed "preferred DME list" simply got shorter, with U.S. Internet sales and additional non-preferred B&M's left in the cold. Presumably all driven by their own internally-derived business decisions regarding just which big DME's to strategically partner up with. .

Wulfman said:

Has anybody else noticed (recently) how many new users on this forum are relating how their DMEs are really pushing ResMad machines? Something's going on.....

Yep, I sure have. What's more the Resmed salesmen "sold" my sleep lab on ordering the Resmeds for their patients. Even my 02 DME is now placing Resmeds w/patients via my sleep lab's recommendations & scripts.

TGregg said:

They'll be able to deliver inferior products at much higher prices, and only patients who do their homework will get the better machines.

I will disagree w/this. Producing inferior machines will hurt Resmed not just in the US but in all of their world sales markets. Resmed makes an xPAP as good as any on the market today and better than some.

Rabid1 said:

They are basically saying "if you won't let us sell our products the way we want, we will make the government pay through the nose".

Boy, but I'm being a disagreeable ole broad tonight, but I have to disagree w/this as well. The government, thru Medicare, with insurance companies following suit, "buy" the biggest share of xPAPs being sold in the US today - and they pay the same for a bare-bones, compliance only, cheap xPAP as they do a top of the line AutoPAP. Brand name doesn't enter into what Medicare and insurances pay for xPAPs.

The way I see it, Resmed's new policy is "only" costing them educated end-users, but it "is" bringing them more DME interest and loyalty by pandering to the brick & mortar DMEs, the biggest "purchasers" of their product.

BrianRT said:

Strange thing was, at my DME I work for, ResMed raised THEIR prices to us so high, it was actually more than what we were retailing their products for.

I wonder, Brian, if your DME is just "too small potatoes" for Resmed to be bothered with? Like maybe they are pandering to the "big fish" in the sea. On the other hand, my 02 DME who is now starting to provide Resmeds is a pretty small outfit, covering just one state and I'm not even sure that it covers the entire state or just a portion of it.

Whatever, there's really no way we will ever really know what sparked Resmed's change of policy in all likelihood.

What does seem obvious, though, is that Resmed's new policy is costing itself the most educated, and therefore most successful, xPAP users and I can't help but wonder if eventually this policy might not end up "biting them in the a** in the far distant future.

Slinky wrote:I can't help but wonder if eventually this policy might not end up "biting them in the a** in the far distant future.

Well, I'm admittedly having a tough day today, cognitively. Hope I can at least get this one right: that would be "abs"---short for "abdominal muscles"... right?

I did get one right today, didn't I? .

ROTFLMAO!!!!! Choke.

I think they were doing you a favor, software was crap anyway.