CPAPtalk.com

Y'all are awesome. Seriously.

I will wait to see what the sleep doc sends just for sh*ts and giggles. But I see my gp in a couple of weeks so I probably will explain it all to her and get her to write a script for me. This really is a screwy industry isn't it? It truly amazes me how difficult the labs, insurance, vendors, and manufacturers can make it for us to get the therapy we need. I recently tried to get a straight answer from my insurance company about their policy on paying for masks. I have heard many a person talk about being able to replace their mask through insurance every three months. But my own insurance company's written info on the subject was vague and confusing. So.... I asked them directly what their policy was... and I get back the same mumbo jumbo word for word. I still don't know if the three month thing holds or not. All I know is their general policy:

You are covered for medically necessary durable medical equipment for activities of daily living, and supplies needed to operate durable medical equipment. If there are two or more professionally recognized items that are equally appropriate for a condition, benefits will be based on the most cost effective items.Routine maintenance or repairs, even if due to damage, are NOT covered.
Replacement of durable medical equipment is covered only when it no longer meets the clinical needs of the patient or has exceeded the expected lifetime of the item {this does not apply to the medically necessary replacement of the nebulizers, face masks and tubing, and peak flow monitors for the management of asthma}.

yeah... so... anyway...

I'm fairly lucky, my sleep lab and DME are in the same place. They've been really cooperative and good with me. I've gotten my sleep studies and my equipment in a timely manner. I also got a written copy of my prescription in the mail within a week of asking for it. The only thing that I haven't gotten yet is the original study, they say it would cost $15.00 because they would have some outsourced place make the copy..I don't understand that. But whatever when I go see them again in October I will try it again.

But the main thing is I have my prescription and can fax it to cpap.com so I can get a machine from them anytime in the future that I need one. Right now I"m good but you never know

Heck I haven't even TRIED to get a copy of my sleep study results yet. I figure I'll ask my gp for that too since I know she has one in my file.

Some sleep labs don't do their own scoring of the night's data but send it out, either to a central office if a "chain" or to an organization that specializes in evaluation and titration study scoring. Or after a specified length of time they send them to some central storage facility. Our hospital does that w/old medical records, I think 7 years or older, or those that haven't been "active" w/in a specific range of years.