What Does a DME Do - My Perspective

Mattman,Thank you for your post. I know that must have taken a lot of thought.. This subject has been beaten to death here but just my personal observation from experience. We started off completely on the wrong foot with our B&M DME, wrong machine, wrong mask, condescending and secretive attitude,etc. I'm sure she sensed how anxious my husband and I were and took advantage of that. When I found this forum and began my journey I became empowered and less intimidated and was able to level the playing field in my dealings with "Sarah" and we came to meeting of the minds. Although I don't need much contact now except for masks and some supplies, our interaction is much more respectful and she's even asked my general opinion once or twice. So as I've said here before, education is a powerful tool. Dori

The problem with with DME's lie with the statements you yourself make about providing great service to terminally ill patients and other such heartwarming stories for little or no cost.

By doing this and the need of a DME, which is a business, to break even and perhaps even turn a profit, leaves nothing but other customers to subsidize this humanitarian activity which you so vividly describe.

I think the issue is that we the CPAP community (at least I can speak for myself) do NOT WANT to subsidize the other areas of the DME business whether they are worthy causes or not. We want to pay a reasonable price for the level of service that WE require.

mattman wrote:I've worked with a number of Hospice groups over the years and I hope yours was able to provide some measure of support through all this.

Serenity Hospice in New Orleans was excellent -- it would be hard to ask for better service.

snoregirl wrote:The problem with with DME's lie with the statements you yourself make about providing great service to terminally ill patients and other such heartwarming stories for little or no cost.

By doing this and the need of a DME, which is a business, to break even and perhaps even turn a profit, leaves nothing but other customers to subsidize this humanitarian activity which you so vividly describe.

I think the issue is that we the CPAP community (at least I can speak for myself) do NOT WANT to subsidize the other areas of the DME business whether they are worthy causes or not. We want to pay a reasonable price for the level of service that WE require.

I definately understand that belief. I both agree and disagree with it in this case - mostly because the DMEs don't get to decide the pricing so for the most part, it's not a straight 'If-Then' sort of situation. Meaning, at least from my own perspective it's not a matter of 'We either bill x amount to this patient or we will not donate y amount of services to this patient.'

For everyone I've ever dealt with working with patients is just a part of day to day business as I suspect is the case with most companies. I don't really know if, when I buy a copy of Microsoft Windows that 'x' amount of the cost is the amount built in that goes to Bill Gate's charities (Not the best analogy but what I can come up with). But I suspect like I said that it's just a part of business.

But at the same time, I know very well that the reimbursement on some items is lower than the cost of providing them. The only reason a provider agrees to take that insurance is because other items can make up for it. So in that sense, yes you're absolutely right and I fully agree that it sucks.

None of it takes in account the concept of cash purchases which I do agree 100% are insane and out of whack thanks to Insurance generally not allowing lower cash sale pricing.

mattman