Just a quick (or not so quick) note about my experience, this relates to CIGNA but not until the very end so you can skip most of this if you'd like.
When I first called the doctor to get an appointment the soonest they could take me was a month from the day I called. So I go to my appointment- 15 minutes early. They take me in, weight me (their scale didn't go that high so they guessed), measured my neck, took a polaroid of my head...took vitals (BP etc) and asked me to have a seat. I was then told the doctor was running late. About 35 minutes later the doctor arrives.
Very nice, personable, young guy. He takes me into his office (very plush, big mahogany desk, puffy leather chairs) and asked me a bunch of questions, thumbed through the 40 page questionare they made me fill out before my appointment. He then told me he was pretty sure I had Sleep apnea and gave me a very good explaination of exactly what sleep apnea was. He told me I would need to have a sleep study done to be sure and had me schedule it. From the 4 or 5 responses he looked at on the 40 page questionaire he indicated that he thought I had a pretty bad case and told me to tell the receptionist to get me in as soon as possible for my sleep study. Oh he also told me he didn't advise me to drive until I got this treated and he gave me some literature and joked "I'd tell you to read this but you'll probably fall asleep" "chuckle".
So...the soonest they could fit me in was 3 weeks and told me they'd keep me on the list incase they had any cancelations. At the same time they scheduled my doctors appointment - 2 weeks after my study - (Remember when the doctor told me not to drive? did he expect me to miss a month of work?) About 2 weeks later they called me and told me they had a cancelation.
I had my sleep study, it was a "double study" they first had me sleep with no gear but had me hooked up to all these wires and a glowing red clippy thing on my finger that felt like a rat had clamped on and wouldn't let go.
halfway through the night they woke me up and hooked me up to an oxygen tank. about an hour later they woke me up and hooked me up to a
cpap. They tried on a few masks and settled on a
nasal pillow mask that was strapped to my head with about 10 pounds of velcro.
about an hour and a half later they work me because the mask was leaking and they fixed it by taping part of it to my cheek.
about an hour and half after that they work me up and told me they were done my test. They removed the rat from my now throbbing finger anf proceded to remove all of the wires that had been taped to my VERY HAIRY body. ( I have several new bald spots that my wife laughs at now). They asked me how I slept and I told them they they should tell me but they said I'd have to wait for the doctor. They asked me how I felt, if I felt "rested".... Well lets see...I had wires taped to me all night and a rat biting my finger tip, not to mention the fact that they woke me up a bunch of times...."I feel pretty tired" I said. "OK...this won't hurt a bit" RRRRIIIIIPPPPPPP "OUCH", "Wow, look at all this hair that stuck to the tape..."
The next day I called the doctors to say I had my sleep test and asked if they could fit me in any sooner to see the doctor for the results. "Nope". they said. " Then why did you have me take my sleep study early?" I asked. Silence. "Are you there?" silence "Hello?" , "yes so we'll see you in a few weeks then, good bye"
So I finally get to the appointment with the doctor. They take me right in and he's actually in the office that day so I only had to wait 25 minutes to see him. He welcomes me warmly into his plush office and has me sit in one of his puffy leather chairs. He opens a folder and shows me a chart with a bunch of lines on it. He explained to me what the lines meant - that I was waking up once every couple of minutes and that I was never getting past stage 1 sleep. then he showed me another chart and told me this was while they were treating me with the
cpap, this chart clearly showed me imediately working through stage 1,2,3&4 and ending up in REM for a solid hour and a half (remember they woke me because my mask was sleeping) then I went right back into REM for the rest of the morning.
Clearly this showed the
CPAP had worked. So he said, we'll be setting your pressure to 13 (he pointed to a line on the chart that showed the pressure being adjusted through the night) He told me becuase it was so serious he'd have his office schedule the equipment to be dropped off at my house within a day. They scheduled an appointment for me to return to see the doctore with my machine for a month later. By the way I don;t have any of the stats from my test since I wasn't educated enough at the time to ask those questions.
2 days later I called the office to ask where my machine was. "Brandy" told me that she had me down to see the doctor in a month and that I wouldn't get my machine until I went over the results of my test with the doctor. I very nicely (and very slowly) explained to Brandy that I already did that and that I was supposed to have my machine the next day. Brandy put me on hold for 10 minutes and came back to say "You're right, but the girl who schedules these is working alone and she has a back up and it probably won't be until next monday or later". Shocked, and a little hurt I hung up the phone. I was speechless. It took me about 10 minutes to snap out of it and call back. Brandy answered again and I gave her a peice of my mind. I told her the doctor told me not to drive, and acted like I could DIE, TONIGHT if I didn't get treatment and did she want my death on her hands and was she going to pay for my kids to eat dinner since I was about to get fired for not coming to work because the doctor told me not to drive?!?!?!?!??!?!?
She put me on hold for 5 minutes this time, she came back on to say the office would get right on it and call me back. "Tonight?" I aksed....."if not tonight, then tomorrow morning first thing" "Fine" I said and let her go.
When I got home from work (yeah I know, of course I was driving, what am I supposed to do?!) My wife told me they called and told her an RT would be there in the morning with my Cpap machine.
THIS IS THE PART ABOUT CIGNA
So the RT gets there (30 minutes late but thats ok I live in the middle of nowhere..my street isn't on any maps yet...heck we don't even have cable) with my machine. Its a very nice Remstar Pro with
C-Flex. He also had Breeze headgear for me. Sitting in the chair at my dining room table he fitted the gear on my head. he had me sign some paper work and explained that the problem is that my insurance company just sends the equipment to me, the doctors office actualy worked it out that the
DME loan me this machine until I get the actual machine from the incurance company's prefered vendor.
He explained that the insurance company also pays the vendor to have an RT come out and visit me and that his company is contracted to do that anyway so when they do finally send my machine everything will work out.
Thats it. I've been using the
CPAP for a few days now and I'm having a hard time with it. the gear is uncomfortable, I'm waking up a lot more and having more trouble getting back to sleep than I did before. I feel much more tired now than I ever have, my nose hurts, etc etc etc. I'm thinking the mask is the problem and I want to try a new mask but I don't have thousands of dollars to blow on a bunch of masks that may or may not work. If I knew there was one that would be perfect for me I'd happily plop down a couple hundred for it but how do I know what to get? Does the insurance company pay for masks?