buying online?

[quote="Slinky"]What all this goes to show is that it is to a person's advantage to educate themselves BEFORE accepting ANY xPAP equipment.

And that means learning and KNOWING your DME coverage with your insurance company(ies), DISCUSSING your xPAP needs w/your sleep doctor, COMING TO AN AGREEMENT on which xPAP the doctor is willing to script, SHOPPING the local DMEs contracted w/your insurance, PRICING that equipment online AND w/the local DMEs AND getting a good feel for just what any of the local DMEs are going to do for you, how well they will work w/you, how comfortable you feel w/them.

I had never even heard the acronym "DME" until I started reading this forum. I just went the sleep medicine doc's office, did the sleep study and was given my equipment by the "tech" in the office. I recently went back in there because I wanted a machine that kept data and that could easily be powered off of DC battery (and my old machine is several years old & larger). I was looking for a PB 420SP, but they gave me the 420E APAP (which is fine because I wanted to fiddle with things anyway) and threw in the DC cabling because they knew I wanted that...and I usually get an assortment of pillow/whatever sizes whenever I go in for a new mask. And they take care of billing insurance. I looked at the most recent visit and insurance got billed for about 8-10 "medical supplies/equipment" items...Aetna's "agreed pricing" was less than 50% of what they were billed and then they covered the remainder at 80 or 90% (I don't remember)...my total bill (according to Aetna, at least) should be around $32. I haven't seen the bill from the doc to see if they are billing me for the excess over the "agreed pricing" (we'll see how that goes ).

Anyways...my point is that absolutes are always dubious .