DME's are really a bunch of .&^*)

Personally I think most DME'S are a joke. I have checked out 3 in my area and I always know more than they do about what masks are new and available. How they differ from other masks and so on. Not only are they pretty ignorant about the products but they also have some dumb rules that make it almost impossible for you to get a good fit.

I just talked to a couple of them recently about getting a new mask that my insurance will cover. I told them there were about 4 masks I was interested in and they did have 3 of them in their stock,

BUT the way they see it is that I should let them look at my face and judge which mask will work best for me and then try it on at their location. Then if they feel it is a good fit that is my mask and I should take it home and not bring it back period. They don't want me to try on a couple of masks and they don't want me to have the option to return it once I take it home.

This is supposedly the way they have recently been told to handle this because they have to many returned masks. YA THINK??? That is because the so called DME'S have no clue how to fit a mask and how can they know what is comfortable for someone else if they don't even use CPAP?

This from people that don't even know the merchandise????

I told him with procedures like that I would do better to continue to buy offline without any fittings since I would have the same chance of success and it would save my insurance a lot of money and in the long run I would feel better about the deal.

Yes, this is what me DME (only used it for initial purchase since total copay was $260 and I got an auto.

If they do anything they put some sizing guide on your face. Once I took the mask home it was mine...

And all because they can't be bothered to fill out the form and return it to Respironics, Resmed or Fisher & Paykel w/in 30 days.

dieselgal wrote:Personally I think most DME'S are a joke. I have checked out 3 in my area and I always know more than they do about what masks are new and available. How they differ from other masks and so on. Not only are they pretty ignorant about the products but they also have some dumb rules that make it almost impossible for you to get a good fit.

I just talked to a couple of them recently about getting a new mask that my insurance will cover. I told them there were about 4 masks I was interested in and they did have 3 of them in their stock,

BUT the way they see it is that I should let them look at my face and judge which mask will work best for me and then try it on at their location. Then if they feel it is a good fit that is my mask and I should take it home and not bring it back period. They don't want me to try on a couple of masks and they don't want me to have the option to return it once I take it home.

This is supposedly the way they have recently been told to handle this because they have to many returned masks. YA THINK??? That is because the so called DME'S have no clue how to fit a mask and how can they know what is comfortable for someone else if they don't even use CPAP?

This from people that don't even know the merchandise????

I told him with procedures like that I would do better to continue to buy offline without any fittings since I would have the same chance of success and it would save my insurance a lot of money and in the long run I would feel better about the deal.

I'm sure one of the DME's or their employees will comment here to refute all our claims, but yes, this has been the case with most of us.
If there ever was a *medical* service that desperately needs an overhaul in the way they are allowed to do business, this is it.
Every DME that I've ever gone to has expressed total amazement at the amount of knowledge I have about cpap stuff. And that is just in regard to basic information that I've learned from the helpful folks here at this forum.

I have to say it again, "Thank YOU, Johnny Goodman!"

As I said on an earlier post, I asked an Apria's R/T if he ever visited any of the Apnea forums and he responde "I don't have time for that crap". My neighbor spent 12 years sleeping with the cap off the oxygen supply nipple on her mask. The DME has someone in her home on a monthly basis and they never caught it.
I know there have to be some decent ones out there, just been unable to find one.
Show me one that actually has you lay down for a fitting and I will certainly try the.

Slinky wrote:And all because they can't be bothered to fill out the form and return it to Respironics, Resmed or Fisher & Paykel w/in 30 days.

Has anyone been able to confirm this policy with the manufacturers? I sent an email to F&P and Resmed and the reply was vague saying that they do different things with different DMEs but they don't enforce a standard policy. Of course my suspicious nature tells me that that is what the DMEs WANT them to say so that they don't have to honor it if they don't feel like it.

Vader wrote:Every DME that I've ever gone to has expressed total amazement at the amount of knowledge I have about cpap stuff.

I think most DMEs deal with O2 sales and other home health stuff because that's probably where the real money is. They don't make as much on CPAP so don't learn about/push it as much. This certainly seems to be the case for my DME who did not want to even explore the option of moving from a VPAP III ST to an Adapt but when an overnight oximetry test (which turned out later to be faulty) showed low O2 levels, they were in a real big hurry to get me on oxygen.

Dave

The only way you will ever know if you can tolerate a particular mask is to go home and sleep with it. There is no other way. Any DME that is worth anything should know this and give patients an opportunity to use a particular mask for a few weeks and if they don't like it swap it out for something else FREE OF CHARGE. And they should keep doing this until the patient finds the perfect mask for him/her.

[quote="DP"]The only way you will ever know if you can tolerate a particular mask is to go home and sleep with it. There is no other way. Any DME that is worth anything should know this and give patients an opportunity to use a particular mask for a few weeks and if they don't like it swap it out for something else FREE OF CHARGE. And they should keep doing this until the patient finds the perfect mask for him/her.

DP wrote:The only way you will ever know if you can tolerate a particular mask is to go home and sleep with it. There is no other way. Any DME that is worth anything should know this and give patients an opportunity to use a particular mask for a few weeks and if they don't like it swap it out for something else FREE OF CHARGE. And they should keep doing this until the patient finds the perfect mask for him/her.

This is how my DME works.

I hear how hard it is for some with their DMEs and emphasize; there is enough to contend with just trying to get a good night's sleep. I am also happy to say that I have a great DME!

My DME worked closely with me by phone and email many times before I even walked in their door. I did a lot of research on machines, masks, etc and they were patient and highly accommodating.

Before my sleep study, I asked the sleep center coordinator for a few DMEs in the area and she told me which was their favorite. I called each and found my sleep center's favorite was mine as well. I called them and established a relationship.

By the time I walked in the door for the first time, they had everything I wanted. I found out about the new A-Flex (needed it for easier exhalation because I had trouble with exhalation in titration and have asthma) and they even contacted my doctor, changed the order, and I was sent away with the machine and mask I wanted.

The Comfort Gel size small was a bit big and they sent me a Petite size next day UPS delivery.

They are professional, caring, and highly accommodating. I wish everyone could experience their service. I am very grateful.

Vader wrote:Every DME that I've ever gone to has expressed total amazement at the amount of knowledge I have about cpap stuff.

I've never actually "used" a local DME for CPAP equipment, but about a month after I started therapy, I got a couple of pulse-oximeters from one (for the weekend) and when I brought them back to be downloaded, I brought my Encore Pro reports along to try to compare the events of the night with what was showing on both printouts.....and got the same reaction. I still remember her remark....."I've never seen anyone who was so 'into' their therapy the way you are." (my thought: that's the way EVERYBODY should be)
I really doubted if they even had the Encore Pro software to download anybody's card.

The people at the local DME shops, here, SEEM to be nice and helpful, but I got the impression (2 years ago) that you would not get the top-of-the-line equipment unless you really knew what you were talking about and then pushed them for it.
They ALL got ruled out in the beginning because of their prices.....and I figured that since I could READ.....I could figure this out for myself.
Even if my insurance provider had not been willing to reimburse me, I was prepared to purchase all of it out-of-pocket, just to be able to get what I wanted.
I just recently discovered that there's a Lincare office here......I've never contacted them (they don't know me like the others do) so I've been tempted to go in there sometime and see what they've got and what they "KNOW"......

Den

[quote]Well, APRIA is the only one my Insurance is dealing with and this is highly unlikely they will allow you to do that.
Sergey.
http://www.sleepapneasymptom.medgrip.com/cpap_mask.html

DP wrote:Let me guess, you have CIGNA right? This is the problem you run into whenever an insurance carrier goes with 1 company and eliminate competition. Just imagine what universal healthcare will be like.

Um, the point of universal health care is that it's universal. As in it will pay for treatment anywhere. So in fact, it would be the exact opposite of insurance companies contracting one on one with DMEs. Because with universal health care, you can go anywhere.

I have CIGNA, they let me buy from who I want and refund 85% upto their line item, which for me is 1800.

They have been very easy to deal with.

For clarification, like all insurance companies, CIGNA has many different plans they offer to their clients (employer groups). If you are in a CIGNA HMO that only covers in-network providers, then you may be limited to Apria (or another DME in your area). If you have a PPO plan that lets you go out-of-network, then you may get better coverage for using in-network providers, but out-of-network providers are covered (with higher co-pay/co-insurance). If you have a POS plan, you may be able to go anywhere.

In-network plans are cheaper for the employer to purchase from the insurance company, because in-network providers accept lower payment for goods/services.

Bottom line is that if you have a plan that severely limits what providers you can use, whether its DMEs, hospitals, or physicians, that's really the employers fault, because they chose to purchase the cheapest plan.

I went into a DME in El Cjaon, Ca.
Asked about buying a hose and a filter for my Cpap machine

Got the run around that I needed to have a perscription on file with them and a copy of my insurance with them to even get a package of filters for my machine.

I called Apria Rip off one day about getting some filters and was on hold for over 30 min.
Haven't called them since and that was over a year ago.

Also as soon as I owned my machine from Apria never got a call back from them or nothing. I have been fighting with them since Nov of 05 about stuff they billed to my insurance that was to be covered by OWCP/DOL

Apria Sucks