Had it with local CPAP suppliers

If at all possible, pick a local company, not a nation wide company. We use the medical supply company that is connected with the medical group our doctors are in. The whole system comes under the umbrella of one of the local hospital systems. Our PCP, sleep clinic, DME and my cardiologist are all part of the same medical group.

The subject line says it all. I’ve tried several local DME suppliers for my CPAP supplies and none of them seem to give a whit about me, their customer.

The key to understanding DME's is that they do NOT recognize us as their customers, because we aren't the ones paying very much. They recognize insurers as the "customers" because insurers have contracts with them and insurer's pay the bulk of every purchase. The recognize doctors and sleep clinics as "customers" because they are a source of referrals. But sleep apnea patients are not seen as their customers in any way, shape, or form, therefore they don't feel they owe us the time of day. If we stop using them, they don't even notice, there are a 100 more where each of us came from.

The happiest day of my CPAP life was when I lost my CPAP coverage (HMO only paid for Crapria) and I was free to get whatever I wanted from whomever I want (I pay my HMO insurer $2400 a month for this "privilege" ). I buy my stuff from cpap.com or from Amazon. I get exactly what I want at a decent price and no hassle. Priceless.

You can easily buy parts for your mask from cpap.com, from eBay, or Amazon for not too much money if you don't have to replace the entire mask. I buy headgear and nasal pillows occasionally. I got 52 filters for my machine for about $12--ALL at once! I get exactly what I order in 1 -2 days and the cost is exactly what is quoted, free shipping, no fighting and waiting 6 months for a refund (I'm looking at you Crapria).

Insurance MAY be worth it for a new machine when needed, but with deductibles and co-pays I'm not even sure about that. In 5 years I will go on Medicare Advantage with my HMO, and then my machine will be perpetual rental. No thanks, I'll buy a lightly used machine out of pocket from wherever the hell I want and own my stuff.

I have had an overall very good experience with Lincare, to which I switched when I got on Medicare. They required the original sleep study results, prescription (original and current), and maybe a few other pieces of information, such as a printout from software on my machine showing compliance. I got my Airsense 10 for Her through them 5 years ago with no problem, if I recall corrently.. They call every 3 months and ask if I need supplies. They tell me what Medicare will cover at that time and the supplies are shipped to me..

I am now trying to get a new Airsense 10 for Her through them, because it has been 5 years (July 1) and a month or two before that, the machine display started saying "motor life exceeded. Contact supplier." The new prescription had to be accompanied by notes from a doctor's visit in which CPAP was discussed, as well as a statement from the doctor that I was compliant with CPAP use, it is medically necessary, and I am benefiting from the treatment. I provided the doctor some summary graphs from the Rescan software to include with the presscription the 2nd time. I am still waiting for the new machine, but I did have a call from their "RePap Department" last week that said they had everything they needed (including my original sleep study, which I had to prod them to find in their files) and they would be in touch when the machine was approved and ready. So getting a new machine takes more time than it should, but so far the 5-yeqr-old A10 still works.

I am now trying to get oxygen through Lincare and am just in the beginning stages of trying to get that approved by Medicare.

It seems that COVID may have slowed the efficiency and staffing at my local Lincare office, causing things coming from them (skak new APAP machine and oxygen) to fall into a black hole.

With any DME when starting out, be sure to keep track of who you spoke with, when, and what they said. Then, try to followup with that person, if they were helpful. I have not done this lately and things seem to have slowed to a crawl. That has not been my experience with Lincare until now, and I think it is a local (Maryland) office problem.

The call every three months comes from somewhere in another state and works like clockwork. They don't process CPAP machine however. That goes through the local office. At least, that is what I have been told.

I have not found that it was a disadvantage dealing with a national company (Lincare). My first DME may have been local only. When I switched from private insurance to Medicare, I had to switch to a new provider because they were not in the Medicare network. Otherwise, they were good to deal with, too.

Good luck finding a DME you like and that is efficient in getting you the things you need through insurance.

Maryland CPAPer 2 (used to be Maryland CPAPer before board lost my login credentials several months ago)

I have a family member on Kaiser (goes through Apria) and it's hard to say which party is dropping the ball harder on her orders. They're both equally terrible and we have had issues with both.

I'm on United and going through a local DME which is owned by the hospital where my doctor works (no one mentioned this to me initially). The local DME sucks too, and is rife with billing errors, but the only reason I am sticking there is because I can drive the 25 miles if need to be literally see someone in person and explain everything they're doing wrong if I have to. I've already done that once.

Also, they have me a free FFM when I went there to try it on. Turns out, it was a bad fit, but at least the gesture was nice. It was a demo mask, I think, though. Thoroughly wiped it down with alcohol pads.

There's really nowhere to go it seems. All the big names have terrible reviews and the little allegedly good ones may be out of network.

Okie bipap wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:00 pm

. . . We use the medical supply company that is connected with the medical group our doctors are in. The whole system comes under the umbrella of one of the local hospital systems. Our PCP, sleep clinic, DME and my cardiologist are all part of the same medical group.

Sounds like a conflict of interest to me . . .

Everything falls under the purview of the local hospital group. The medical supply operation is not owned by the sleep clinic, but us owned by the local hospital group. I have the option of going any place I want to for my supplies, but their medical group is easy to reach from my home and I don't have to deal with Lincare.

Okie bipap wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:39 pm

Everything falls under the purview of the local hospital group. The medical supply operation is not owned by the sleep clinic, but us owned by the local hospital group. I have the option of going any place I want to for my supplies, but their medical group is easy to reach from my home and I don't have to deal with Lincare.

Good you--doing your homework!
Avoiding the big chains is always a good thing.

Ejones0310 wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:33 pm

Thanks everyone for your advice and experiences. I Amin Tulsa, Oklahoma, so I think I’ll start with the list of Medicare providers and cross reference them with the BCBS providers. I’ll likely be going on full Medicare in January (on Part A now), so I might as well find someone that I can stay with.

Verus Healthcare takes Medicare and may take Blue Cross and others also.
I've had good luck with them for several years now. Order online or call.

I use Lincare and they are just OK, not great. They bought out the regional DME I was using. Fortunately it is the same people I deal with. So if you have a phone number for a local office of Lincare that happens to have good people, then it might work out OK.

But I advise against trying to ask for or buy extra filters from a DME. It is not worth your time or effort. Filters are cheap and can be bought on Amazon or eBay, look for the packages with many filters. It doesn't matter if the filters are not Resmed or Respironics versus a no-name brand.

My DME is good for things like masks or heated hoses or machines, but they never send me enough filters. I like to change my non-reusable filter every month so I just buy my own.

If you ever need home oxygen, Lincare has made a good start with me. They have also told me that they have offices in every US state and that if I travel, let them know a week or more ahead of time and they will contact the office closest to where I am traveling to and that office will deliver needed supplies to where I am staying and pick them up when I leave. I don't expect to do much traveling, but this sounds like a major advantage of dealing with a nationwide DME. Oxygen concentrators are heavy and this saves you from needing to carry more oxygen tanks than what you will need to use during the travel itself.

Maryland CPAPer