I am Pisssed-Card Reader for Resmed S8 mach

I just heard from Cpap Australia that they cannot sell the S8 card reader any longer. Resmed must be monitoring these sites. Damn them especially because patients need to be more involved rather than less involved. It's one thing to not allow us to play with the scripts and yet another to prevent us to know if problems happen.

I think we need to jump all over this and possibly even go to our congressmen and women. Resmed wants us to be invisible to them and the best way to do that is to keep us from the facts of our own therapy. It is disgusting.

Does anyone know if there is any place to get this reader? If you do PM me because those SOBs from Resmed are reading what we write.

I have had such trouble sleeping lately and I told my RTs and nothing was done until I demanded another machine, six months after the problems began. If I had been monitoring, I would have known what was going on. Imagine if something happened to me because their machines weren't set properly. We have to make them guilty and force the DMEs to stop buying their products. I've always used Resmed masks, no more.

Alan

I have seen them on Ebay. Good luck.

WOW! That's weird. The S9 card reader is still available. I just bought one for $12.95. BUT the S8 one is not available?????

I just checked and you are right!!!!

I also checked E-Bay and they were $79.

Ed

allend wrote: possibly even go to our congressmen and women.

Like sure. Those are the people that support and fund the FDA and allow them to write legislation to protect their cronies in large entrenched companies. Which allows these companies to use those regulations to keep out competition and screw us, the consumers. ResMed is playing the regulatory game to their benefit along with major DMEs like Apria.

The solution is to get rid of all the big government/heavy regulation/nanny staters that we have in office. Look at the ballots and find the politicians who promise smaller government, less regulation, less bureaucracy, and less government fiddling in the market. Throw the career politicians who are embedded in this crony capitalism out of office.

The CPAP market needs to be deregulated: no prescriptions and no licensing of resalers. This would help us a lot - prices would fall, new competitors would enter the market, technological development would accelerate, a robust used market would develop, and the public would become more aware and more educated.

roster wrote:

allend wrote: possibly even go to our congressmen and women.

The solution is to get rid of all the big government/heavy regulation/nanny staters that we have in office. Look at the ballots and find the politicians who promise smaller government, less regulation, less bureaucracy, and less government fiddling in the market. Throw the career politicians who are embedded in this crony capitalism out of office.

Rooster, anyone who wants to can develop and pap machine or a DME company. It takes money and technology know how and that is what limits the competition. Plus, we need companies we can trust to make machines that won't kill us. What pisses me off is the fact that Resmed, for all the good they do and have done are making sure we get no support. That should not be allowed and I would like to see government step in and open all that up. That would be a good regulation. Resmed's policy is self directed. There is no law saying that we should not be allowed to buy the software and necessary hardware to monitor our therapy and as a result, people will get bad results and some will even die.

No regulations would mean the owner of a DME could pass on his brother-inlaw Louie's cpap that doesn't work. I have no problem with the FDA making sure the machines being sold are OK to sell. What I don't like is the high hill on which Resmed wants to put itself.

allend wrote:

roster wrote:

allend wrote: possibly even go to our congressmen and women.

The solution is to get rid of all the big government/heavy regulation/nanny staters that we have in office. Look at the ballots and find the politicians who promise smaller government, less regulation, less bureaucracy, and less government fiddling in the market. Throw the career politicians who are embedded in this crony capitalism out of office.

Rooster, anyone who wants to can develop and pap machine or a DME company. It takes money and technology know how and that is what limits the competition. Plus, we need companies we can trust to make machines that won't kill us. What pisses me off is the fact that Resmed, for all the good they do and have done are making sure we get no support. That should not be allowed and I would like to see government step in and open all that up. That would be a good regulation. Resmed's policy is self directed. There is no law saying that we should not be allowed to buy the software and necessary hardware to monitor our therapy and as a result, people will get bad results and some will even die.

No regulations would mean the owner of a DME could pass on his brother-inlaw Louie's cpap that doesn't work. I have no problem with the FDA making sure the machines being sold are OK to sell. What I don't like is the high hill on which Resmed wants to put itself.

Their are no laws making us but Resmed Products, And I don't and won't. If you keep sending them your $$$ they will keep limiting your treatment. You get what you deserve. Jim

allend wrote:
No regulations would mean the owner of a DME could pass on his brother-inlaw Louie's cpap that doesn't work. I have no problem with the FDA making sure the machines being sold are OK to sell. What I don't like is the high hill on which Resmed wants to put itself.

One of the examples I like to use is the sporting goods industry because I use a lot of their products. Dick's Sporting Goods is one of the best examples of a supplier whom customers love. This industry is lightly regulated so there is plenty of competition, low prices, and excellent products with new innovative products always flowing in - very different from the CPAP market.

In the example you use, you are expecting the government to make a regulation to protect you from a DME who would sell used equipment (supposedly as new) that does not work. Now what would happen to Dick's Sporting Goods, or even your local one-off gun store, if they sold brother-in-law Louie's 12-gauge pump action shotgun that doesn't work??? Dick's would fail as a business because the customers would avoid them as there are other choices in suppliers. To the management of Dick's the thought that one of their stores would sell a used product that doesn't work as a new product horrifies them and they would immediately and summarily fire any employee who did so.

Contrast this with a DME whose management's overwhelming concern is fulfilling the requirements of the government regulations while not being focused on the customer. It is ironic that you would use the example that you did, because today in a tightly regulated CPAP market it is common for DMEs to sell refurbished CPAPs to customers who think they are new - something that just doesn't happen with equipment sold in the lightly regulated sporting goods industry.

Besides that, an important part of free markets is that you have a government that maintains a stable rule of law and provides for property rights. (We have slipped a bit on that in the U.S., but we are still doing fairly well with it.) Our rule of law/property rights will protect you if your DME tries to sell you Uncle Louie's CPAP. Part of the rule of law protects you from fraud and it is illegal to sell a product that is "not fit for the purposes intended". These laws already exist - onerous regulation of the CPAP market is superfluous.

So without the onerous, competition-killing, innovation-killing, price-raising, quality-lowering, regulatory environment of the DME market that we have now, you will be protected from Uncle Louie's CPAP - you will be better protected because you still have the law behind you and you have more choices to choose another supplier.

If you know how to look for root causes, you can read in this forum everyday for examples of patients who are having problems due to regulation of CPAPs.

Your own difficulty with ResMed is because the regulations have limited the number of suppliers and products and ResMed uses the regulation to their advantage. Get rid of the market regulations and ResMed will be "thrown to the wolves of competition" and will have to make the end users happy to survive.

roster wrote:... . It is ironic that you would use the example that you did, because today in a tightly regulated CPAP market it is common for DMEs to sell refurbished CPAPs to customers who think they are new - something that just doesn't happen with equipment sold in the lightly regulated sporting goods industry. ...

WHERE did you come up w/the information to support this refurbished CPAP bit, Roster Rooster???

allend wrote:... There is no law saying that we should not be allowed to buy the software and necessary hardware to monitor our therapy and as a result, people will get bad results and some will even die. ...

"Restricted to sale on or by the order of a physician"

Slinky wrote:WHERE did you come up w/the information to support this refurbished CPAP bit, Roster Rooster???

I am subject to correction by you guys, but I thought it has been stated in the forum often. One of my three machines is a refurbished unit that Apria supplied me without mentioning that it was not a new machine. That would never happen at any of the gun shops in the county.

allend wrote:... There is no law saying that we should not be allowed to buy the software and necessary hardware to monitor our therapy and as a result, people will get bad results and some will even die. ...

"Restricted to sale on or by the order of a physician"[/quote]

Slinky, Restricted by whom? Is it government or the Resmed Board of Directors or Marketing Department?

Is there a designation between machines providing therapy and hardware and software monitoring it? We can walk into a DME and buy tubing and I bet I can buy a mask from cpap.com without a prescription.

Alan

FoxNewsFan wrote:WOW! That's weird. The S9 card reader is still available. I just bought one for $12.95. BUT the S8 one is not available?????

I just checked and you are right!!!!

I also checked E-Bay and they were $79.

Ed

Ed, I thought the S9s use SD cards. They can be inserted into any SD card reader or your laptop. Am I wrong?

allend wrote: "Restricted to sale on or by the order of a physician"

Slinky, Restricted by whom? Is it government or the Resmed Board of Directors or Marketing Department?

Is there a designation between machines providing therapy and hardware and software monitoring it? We can walk into a DME and buy tubing and I bet I can buy a mask from cpap.com without a prescription.

Alan

You lost your bet.
https://www.cpap.com/cpap-faq/Prescriptions.html

Prescriptions
Federal law requires we have a valid prescription on file before we ship your mask, machine and/or humidifier. You do not need a new prescription to fulfill this requirement and can send us your original prescription.

We provide many easy ways to get your prescription:

We can request your prescription for you! When you checkout, just let us know you would like us to request your prescription, or you can log into your account to have us request your prescription.
Fax your prescription to our Toll Free fax number: 1-866-353-2727, or our international fax number: 713-541-7370
Email your prescription to cpap@cpap.com
Upload your prescription in your account, under the prescriptions section or you can upload it here if you do not have an account.

Thanks, Ozij. You beat me to it.

I read the law. The software and the card reader have nothing to do with the actual therapy and they cannot be considered dangerous. It can only be considered something that removes danger and adds to safety. As a matter of fact, it is used when therapy is not happening. The same as if I wanted to buy a new case for the machine. The card reader could be deemed to be dangerous if I threw it at someone but that would have nothing to do with therapy. Since I have no plans to play dodgereaderpap, I am not buying any of this.

Imagine if an apnea patient/cpap manufacturer (hereinafter known as the Company) user gets into a car accident and a very smart lawyer would find out that the driver has been complaining about therapy and has been trying to monitor his progress by buying the software and card reader but the Company would not allow it. I think there is some question as to the difference between actual therapy and monitoring the success or failure of therapy. If I was a member of that jury I would first determine that the card ready and the software only added to the safety and could be used to identify warning signs. Then, if it was proved that the driver was falling asleep at the wheel because of full but poor night's sleep, I am pretty sure that if the Company was made a party to the action, I would charge the Company with malfeasance or misfeasance or something and make the Company pay damages.

But wait, what if I had a prescription to buy the software and the card reader?

Alan

Furthermore, how dangerous can the card reader be if Resmed is using SD cards now on the S9 machines?