Widest possible mask prescription - suggestions please...

I want to get a new mask at some point.
I will be going to my general practitioner this Thursday.
I would like to ask for a mask prescription that will give me the most options with the least amount of headache for me or my gp. What is the suggested wording for a mask prescription in order to buy whatever I want on cpap.com? (or at a brick & mortar DME - <gack> - yeah, like that's going to happen...)

This is what I've come up with:

At patient's discretion - any one or more patient-preferred full-face, nasal or hybrid mask(s), including any and all hosing, machine or in-line filters, parts or supplies necessary to fulfill requirements of successful sleep therapy compliance.

Any feedback?

DreamDiver wrote:I want to get a new mask at some point.
I will be going to my general practitioner this Thursday.
I would like to ask for a mask prescription that will give me the most options with the least amount of headache for me or my gp.

This is what I've come up with:

At patient's discretion - any one or more patient-preferred full-face, nasal or hybrid mask(s), including any and all hosing, machine or in-line filters, parts or supplies necessary to fulfill requirements of successful sleep therapy compliance.

Any feedback?

Hi DreamDiver

I reckon that only a lawyer could better what you wrote, or perhaps a politician.

Go with it - great stuff

cheers

Mars

PS I guess you could add, after "therapy compliance" - as decided by the patient

which would make it -

At patient's discretion - any one or more patient-preferred full-face, nasal or hybrid mask(s), including any and all hosing, machine or in-line filters, parts or supplies necessary to fulfill requirements of successful sleep therapy compliance, as decided by the patient.

I just got one from my sleep doctor.

CPAP + Heated Humidifier + any masks and supplies of patient's choice.

They added the Heated Humidifier, I hadn't thought about it.

This also gets me a back up machine here at cpap.com, should I happen to spot a good deal, along with any mask I might want to try.

mars wrote: ... as decided by the patient ...

Nice! However, I see now that what I wrote could be interpreted to suggest that the patient should also choose whatever machine they want too. Patients should be guided about machine type - i.e. BiPAP vs. SV vs. CPAP, etc., leaning toward "auto" versions of each, but that's another battle. I'm just trying to make sure I'm not hindered when ordering supplies right now. Masks are so user-preference-specific though, it seems ridiculous to allow anyone but the patient to choose what they get. How about:

At patient's discretion - any one or more patient-preferred full-face, nasal or hybrid mask(s), including any and all hosing, machine filters, in-line filters, parts or supplies necessary to fulfill [patient's interpretation of] requirements for successful sleep therapy compliance.

Pugsy wrote:I just got one from my sleep doctor.

CPAP + Heated Humidifier + any masks and supplies of patient's choice.

They added the Heated Humidifier, I hadn't thought about it.

This also gets me a back up machine here at cpap.com, should I happen to spot a good deal, along with any mask I might want to try.

Actually, this really is the simplest if you already know what your machine should be. Thanks Pugsy.

So for me, it might be:

Patient's choice of AutoCPAP, CPAP, Heated Humidifier and any masks or supplies needed. Pressure(s) set to patient's choice.

Of course this would never work for a brick & mortar DME. They'd just give you what they want to give you and interpret it to mean 'Patient's choice of what we'll allow them to order'.

DreamDiver wrote:Of course this would never work for a brick & mortar DME. They'd just give you what they want to give you and interpret it to mean 'Patient's choice of what we'll allow them to order'.

Probably not unless I went ready for battle. Actually the orders that most DME's get are much like that. Very broad, it is the DME that puts the shackles on the orders and when you question them or want a copy they either refuse to give it to you or tell you it isn't a "real" script so that you won't see how broad it really is.

My prescription as written will also get me an Auto CPAP from cpap.com if I wish. Copied in part from prescription explanations.

APAP

* Contains one of the following words or phrases "APAP", "AutoPAP", "AutoSet", "Auto CPAP", "Auto Adjusting CPAP", "Self Adjusting CPAP", "CPAP" or "Continuous Positive Airway Pressure" or similar term.

Pugsy wrote:...
My prescription as written will also get me an Auto CPAP from cpap.com if I wish. Copied in part from prescription explanations.

APAP

* Contains one of the following words or phrases "APAP", "AutoPAP", "AutoSet", "Auto CPAP", "Auto Adjusting CPAP", "Self Adjusting CPAP", "CPAP" or "Continuous Positive Airway Pressure" or similar term.

So your prescription is written very widely and simply, but references a lot of legalese that further describes other stuff?
Is there a lot of referential legalese?

DreamDiver wrote: ......

......... Pressure(s) set to patient's choice.

..........

Good idea DD.

I will ask my doc for that wording. It will give me some cheap entertainment to see the Apria tech read it and go into conniption.

DreamDiver wrote: So your prescription is written very widely and simply, but references a lot of legalese that further describes other stuff?
Is there a lot of referential legalese?

My prescription is very simple, no legal mumbo jumbo.
CPAP + Heated Humidifier + any supplies and masks of patient's choice.
Pressure at 8 cm.
That is the sum total of what is/was written on the little Rx notepad.

I knew this would be the way it was going to be worded and I also knew that it didn't matter because just having the word CPAP was enough to get me another auto unit if I wanted.

the other stuff that I copied about APAP and wording came from cpap.com prescription clarification area.
https://www.cpap.com/cpap-faq/Prescriptions.html#133
Should I want to purchase an auto CPAP, I can. CPAP.com will let me buy an auto cpap but they will set the machine to CPAP mode with a pressure of 8 for me. No biggie. I can change it to whatever mode and pressure I might want to. If no pressure is mentioned a person gets auto mode with it wide open at 4 - 20.

An auto CPAP is a CPAP machine. It just also has the capabilities to be an auto cpap also.

rooster wrote:...It will give me some cheap entertainment to see the Apria tech read it and go into conniption.

When they ask you for your pressure, you could say 'I'd like to set the pressure myself when I arrive to pick up the machine, but will need to use your manometer to verify.' That might garner further spasms of apoplexy.

DreamDiver wrote:When they ask you for your pressure, you could say 'I'd like to set the pressure myself when I arrive to pick up the machine, but will need to use your manometer to verify.' That might garner further spasms of apoplexy.

You know this is just the kind of stuff that I would get a kick out of doing if I had just a little more time and energy. I hate those holier than thou attitudes that some medical personnel maintain. Notice I called them personnel and not professionals. Sometimes the urge to take them down a peg or two just is too strong to be ignored.

Pugsy wrote:I hate those holier than thou attitudes that some medical personnel maintain. Notice I called them personnel and not professionals. Sometimes the urge to take them down a peg or two just is too strong to be ignored.

Maybe we need is a self-serve DME. Buy a mask. Buy a machine. Use the manometer over at the manometer table, like you use the paper cutter or glue-stick at Kinko's. But where Kinko's doesn't charge for the paper cutter or glue stick, the DME would probably charge by the minute for the manometer.

DreamDiver wrote: ...........
Maybe we need is a self-serve DME. Buy a mask. Buy a machine. Use the manometer over at the manometer table, like you use the paper cutter or glue-stick at Kinko's. But where Kinko's doesn't charge for the paper cutter or glue stick, the DME would probably charge by the minute for the manometer.

All this stuff needs to be sold at WalMart and Best Buy without prescription. Obama will be interested to hear about the savings from this when I have a beer with him.

If you are buying from CPAPdotCom a script for a machine will get you the rest, unless I misread that announcement. My script simply says Bipap with supplies. I had to ask doc to add the pressures.

I think even here they require the pressure to be written on the script so the patient pressure choice will likely get you more grief when you don't need it.

rooster wrote:All this stuff needs to be sold at WalMart and Best Buy without prescription. Obama will be interested to hear about the savings from this when I have a beer with him.

I thought about that. Walmart does sell beer.
Oh. You mean Xpap and supplies...
Right next to the diabetics supplies, wheelchairs and pressure cuffs.
The price would probably drop to about a hundred bucks per machine for non-data machines, a little more for data-capable machines, and manufacturers would probably make a larger overall profit because more people would be using them.