Keep renting or buy?

Help me figure out the best thing to do for my S9. I recieved a letter today this is how it reads. ....As you may be aware your anual maximum for DME is $750.00 calendar year. Your insurance provider BCBS has notified us that you have met your maximum benefit amount for 2010.
As of today you owe $161.36. Per our contact with BCBS they rent the patients equip for 10 months for $124.00 month. at the end of 10 months BCBS converts the unit to a sale and the patient owns the equipment.
The cost of 2 months rental and the cost of supplies needed for your initial setup have exhusted your benefit BCBS will begin paying your monthly rental again on 1-1-2011.
If you would like to set up a payment plan to buy your unit please get hold of my office at your earliest convenience. We would be happy to work with you to set up an affordable payment plan.

How does this all sound to you, what do you think I should do?

How many months have you been renting thus far? Will you need to meet a new deductible in '11 that would make you responsible for monthly rent fees at all? If you will own it after 10 months with not much of an impact to you, I'd continue to rent until the machine is yours. If, however, you need to meet a deductible in '11 that applies to many months of rent on this machine, I'd figure out if it is worth it to rent or to just buy outright for yourself. You must do the math on this from any angle that applies.

other question is... how comfortable are you with your treatment? Have you been sleeping well? Wouldn't want you to have issues after the purchase that required a different type of machine.

Yes, you need to know if you will have a new deductible in 2011 and what your co-pays are. Then take a look at your out of pocket costs and compare continuing to rent to buying the machine (and machine only, not the humidifier--which should have been an outright purchase--, hose, filters, etc.) from the DME AND online.

You may find it less expensive to go ahead and buy the machine--most--likely online at this time (but you can't be certain without crunching the numbers!). You can continue to get your supplies from the DME if your insurance pays enough to make that worthwhile.

The only way to figure this out is to run the numbers. Assuming you're happy with your equipment, check the online price, do the math, and figure out what will give you the most money left in your pocket. Good luck, and let us know!

I was in the same situation. I called my insurance before I made the purchase. I was told I could rent or buy. I chose to buy. Because if I had rented I would have gotten two months then my deductible would have reset to $3300. I would have paid most of the cost out of pocket. So I chose to buy.