Switching Insurance Co's While Renting???

man i feel for ya! like others said see if they will convert or the new will carry on.
some states may have a limit as to preexisting conditions and how insurances have to handle them. check with your state insurance commission on that.
your insurance company should supply you with a benefit disclosure which says how much was billed, how much is disallowwed , and how much is paid for each month. do the math and see if you can continue paying the amount your insurance pays(if it is economical)if they say no tell them to stuff it, cut your losses and find a different war to get what you need.

this example is one of the things wrong with our priveate insurance system. not sure it will ever get fixed

If a person goes from a group insurance to a group insurance then there is no "pre-existing condition" by law in every state. This is a Federal Law. If you go from individual insurance to group it gets murky.

If your DME wants you to start over they are breaking contract law and you should report them. The contract is between you and the DME provider. How it is paid is up to you. They may have agreed to bill your insurance but again the insurance pays a bill you owe. They pay this for you. The DME does not get to start over with an insurance change. There is an exception to this with Medicare but even then it is up to you whether to allow the DME to start over with Medicare.

I'm going to go through this on Jan 1. Have good cafeteria plan insurance but will have to switch on Jan 1 from Aetna to Cigna. I've currently got a local DME that is not in the CIGNA network. Also am doing a rent to own I believe.

Going to have to research this a bit.

Our company got bought out and we switched from Aetan to Blue Shield and the rental period started again. I decided to return it and buy.
Our deductible went up to $500 in the medical year starting October 1 so I got in under the wire before that flip. I didn't do the math it might have been cheaper to continue the rent but it was on a 2 year old machine at that point.
At least now I have a top of the line new machine.

I, too, will be switching insurance companies in January part way through the rental process. How does one convince the insurance company to "convert to buy". Obviously, I can't convince them based on my changing insurance companies - that would mean less money for them to pay on the machine.

What's my persuasive argument with them???

I think lee*** has it right. You tell your DME you are changing insurance and have them bill the new co. for all payments after the switch date (Jan 1???). You keep the original rent-to-own deal. Keep in mind, your new ins provider may have different co-pay amounts...so your portion could go up or down.

In my case when I called the insurance company, I was still on the "old" plan and called the "old" plan and explained we were going to be switching at the first of the year. Since they "the old insurance" had only paid for 4 months on my machine it would have been cheaper for them to have told me "oh well so sad". They were very understanding and understood what I was wanting to happen. They seemed glad to help me and converted mine to a purchase.

Call your current insurance NOW before the switch. Call the current company, explain why you think it would be to your benefit to have your rental converted to a purchase, and above all else -- be nice to the person on the other end. Some of them WILL have the ability to help you and you don't want to alienate them. All they can do is tell you no. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.