Apria prove themselves again.

oceanpearl · Post by **oceanpearl** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:30 am

On August 5 I called the local branch for a new mask.They told me that I would have to call their 800 approval service. Called them and was told that because Medicare is my secondary, they would have to send the mask to my local Apria office in order for them to verify Medicare elegibility. Got back from vacation and called the local office Monday and guess what. NO MASK. They say that they must have a copy of my sleep study before Medicare will pay their 15%. I have been getting CPAP's , mask's and other supplies from this Apria office for around 12 years (had Medicare as secondary for 7 years).
I really went off on the person on the phone and requested that the local manager call me. He called later in the day (couldn't come up with an explanation) but said that he is having the mask sent to me second day air.
Do't you really love companies that are soooo predictable.

Slinky · Post by **Slinky** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:47 am

Wellllll, it DOES seem that Apria has a reputation to maintain and uphold....

ozij · Post by **ozij** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:44 pm

Slinky wrote:Wellllll, it DOES seem that Apria has a reputation to maintain and uphold....

O.

jqp · Post by **jqp** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:22 pm

I had a similar thing happen to me today. Last Friday, the sleep lab gave a new Rx for me to the local Apria rep that visits the sleep lab every week. The Sleep lab manager said she "put it in her hand." I call Apria today... surprise, they don't have anything.

I'm supposed to be upgrading from my el-cheap-o M series to the M series Pro w/C-flex. I called the sleep lab back and she swears the rep has it and said she would get it in the system. Aargh. Hopefully they'll work it out.

oceanpearl · Post by **oceanpearl** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:32 pm

Based on my experience you should call them again on about Oct 4th.

Wulfman... · Post by **Wulfman...** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:38 pm

Slinky wrote:Wellllll, it DOES seem that Apria has a reputation to maintain and uphold....

What puzzles me is WHY people still keep using them.....?

Den

Bearded_One · Post by **Bearded_One** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:48 pm

In my case I have a choice of my medical insurance paying 100% at Apria or I pay 100% somewhere else.

Wulfman... · Post by **Wulfman...** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 3:56 pm

Bearded_One wrote:In my case I have a choice of my medical insurance paying 100% at Apria or I pay 100% somewhere else.

Ever have any problems with them?.....like the other horror stories I've read.

Den

Slinky · Post by **Slinky** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 4:34 pm

Hopefully, BeardedOne, you will get one of their GOOD offices. There are a few. One of the RTs who drops in here occasionally works for Apria. I forget who, tho, Fidget maybe? Good luck. Remember, you can catch more flies w/honey than w/vinegar so do try real hard to be diplomatic if you don't get lucky with them. (Don't do as I do, do as I say!!).

geoDoug · Post by **geoDoug** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:12 pm

Wulfman... wrote:What puzzles me is WHY people still keep using them.....?

My insurance provider (I won't give names, but it starts with an A, ends with an A, and has an ETN in the middle.) requires that I go with Apria if I want any coverage at all. What it comes down to is this: insurance is deducted from our paycheck. If I don't take advantage of it, I'm just adding to the insurance company's bottom line. Hell, yeah, I'm gonna take advantage whenever possible of the system we are forced to buy into.

Doug.

jqp · Post by **jqp** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:09 pm

Ditto. I've got no choice. I'm too cheap to spend $600 of my own money on principal just to show Apria how crappy they are. I'll make a few more phone calls and be a boil on their butt until I get what I'm supposed to.

Bearded_One · Post by **Bearded_One** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:24 pm

I go through the Apria office in Alexandria, Virginia and I haven't had any problems, just an irritation that I had to wait for a "class" opening to get my CPAP.

I had what could have been a minor problem recently when they sent me a mask, hose, and filters -- they sent me the wrong filters for the CPAP that they provided. Luckily I have more filters that I could possibly use for that CPAP, and the filters that they sent fit the new APAP that I bought from cpap.com.

Wulfman... · Post by **Wulfman...** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:26 pm

Slinky wrote:Hopefully, BeardedOne, you will get one of their GOOD offices. There are a few. One of the RTs who drops in here occasionally works for Apria. I forget who, tho, Fidget maybe? Good luck. Remember, you can catch more flies w/honey than w/vinegar so do try real hard to be diplomatic if you don't get lucky with them. (Don't do as I do, do as I say!!).

OR.....a fly swatter.....

Actually, that reminded me of some "fly catchers" that I had years ago when I lived out in the country (farm). You put some meat in them with some water and hang 'em up and let it rot. Flies got in there and added to the aroma and man, did it work! You wanted to make sure it was far enough away from "social" areas and/or downwind. They were extremely effective.
Also, cleaning them out was NOT a pleasant task.

Den

jqp · Post by **jqp** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:37 pm

A class? I would have been happy with a class. I got a confused looking lady that had obviously never fitted a CPAP mask before. She kept asking some other lady how to do everything... the other lady just stood there and watched as I was being "not helped." What a joke.

Bitter, party of one....

Slinky · Post by **Slinky** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:37 pm

Giggle. Being too cheap to buy and use the "new" fly traps that work on the same principal except they charge all outdoors for their stinky "bait", we still use the ole rotting meat bait for those fly traps around the horse barn, Wulfman!! We use old mayonaise jars, etc. so don't do much cleaning, mostly we just throw them out in the trash and let them go to the landfills. Our area doesn't have glass recycling yet, believe it or not.

As far as mask fitting?? Ha! The DME RT took the mask out of the packaging and handed it to me, I got to put it on myself, lucky me. She did turn a CPAP on when I went in to try a second mask. When I got the mask "fitted" she did tell me it looked like it fit pretty good. Chalk up another "service" by the local DME.

Ooops. I forgot! She did "assemble" the Swift 1 and the ComfortLite 2 for me. Whoopee.

I stopped in at my sleep lab and my sleep lab MANAGER took me back to a sleeping room, had me lay on the bed, turned the CPAP on to my pressure and did a REAL and PROPER fitting!!

Mask

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