CPAP Purchasing on the internet

twokatmew wrote:CpapRRT, if I manage to dump my DME, will you come to my house in Michigan? You sound like my kind of DME!

Now I may have to charge for that home visit
That's a bit of a drive for me!

LOL why bother? Who needs the interaction of a trained RRT at a DME? Just buy online! And if you DO go to his house, how DARE you bill for it!!! That should be free!

Guest wrote:LOL why bother? Who needs the interaction of a trained RRT at a DME? Just buy online! And if you DO go to his house, how DARE you bill for it!!! That should be free!

It was a joke.
Sense of humor?

CpapRRT wrote:

Guest wrote:

Billy6 wrote:I rented for a month and saw the prices on this site and tried to play the DME off against these prices and they told me to stick it. So, I dumped them. The bread and butter of the DME racket are those with full insurance. They pretty much know self payers are going elsewhere.

exactly - screw DMEs and their desire to make money! Everyone should just buy online where they're selling at $14 over what they paid from the manufacturer! Let's all hope DMEs stop carrying CPAP equipment. How can they compete with the online folks? Why not just buy online and save? Who needs the services of a DME? Not me! I know everything! Save!

As a DME provider, it is hard to compete with an online store.
So here is what we do to try:
We provide only apap's (Mseries auto aflex, the new respironics series one and s8 auto II) to patients, free home visits (as many as you need to feel satisfied), in depth follow up at 48 hours, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months and every 6 months, provide you a copy of your compliance, 24 hour on call service, lower than your "national" negotiated rates with insurance, we will appeal all insurance denials, if we get denied, we eat the cost, ordering equipment online with a 3 day delivery promise, otherwise, you don't pay.

We aren't all evil.

My DME was too busy to come to my home. Plus it took several calls from me before I could get help. I had to drive 20 miles (one way) to be fitted and get my machine. She also said that if I needed anything like adjustments that I had to make another appointment and drive back to her office. My doctor told me that DME's would set up everything at my house and respond to house calls with problems. I was not able to choose the machine. I was told to take what I was given. The only reason I went along was because I knew nothing about all this and I had no idea what I was doing. It's a rental so I am not obligated. She seemed knowledgeable but too busy for me and I'm not sure she was entirely honest about my choices.

well, she's a moron and deserves to be called out. It's your health. You have the right to demand the machine and mask that you want. Who was it?

redbear:

Please relay that info to your doc!
If the DME is promising one thing and doing another, then your doc should be aware, by sending them YOUR referral, they should be groveling at your and your doc's feet to get you everything you want.

Guest wrote:well, she's a moron and deserves to be called out. It's your health. You have the right to demand the machine and mask that you want. Who was it?

I'm new here, are we allowed to mention companies? Well if so, the company is Lincare. I guess it's a huge corporate company and they have "mini-offices" around which are more like stock rooms with a RRT and a couple admins. This is where I was referred. I didn't know anything. Still don't know much but more than 3 day ago. Much thanks to this site.

CpapRRT wrote:

twokatmew wrote:CpapRRT, if I manage to dump my DME, will you come to my house in Michigan? You sound like my kind of DME!

Now I may have to charge for that home visit
That's a bit of a drive for me!

No matter, I drive quite a distance to my DME right now, so I can come to your office. BTW, Medicare has already paid three months to my DME, so if I manage to switch (assuming I can find a non-moneygrubber around here), they'd only get 10 payments. And that's if I hurry. My next payment will be billed on Sept. 5.

BTW, I dealt with different DMEs when I had a temporary ileostomy, and I had problems with them, too. They wanted me to use a different brand of wafer & pouch than what fit me, but they grudgingly ordered what I needed. (I had leaks with everything else.) Even though I called a week ahead, they would not put in the drop ship order till the last minute. I remember one month they ordered mismatched sizes for wafer & pouch (so pouch wouldn't fit on the wafer), making this shipment useless. It arrived late on a Friday afternoon, and I didn't have enough supplies to get me through the weekend. When I called the DME in a panic, they told me they couldn't reorder till Monday, meaning I wouldn't have usable supplies till Tuesday. I spent several days using up the few samples I had from various manufacturers and sitting on plastic trash bags. If I hadn't had those samples, I'd had to have spent those days in the bath tub. Ewwwww!

Yep, this is why we hate DMEs.