Insurance company is smiling!

Got a letter from the DME today that I my ASV is being switched from rental to purchase. Former doctor who put me on this machine prescribed it on Nov. 2. Which means that my three-month rental expired two days after the year ended and my new deductable began. So instead of a free machine since my deductable and out of pocket expenses had been met for 2010, I now get to meet my $2200 deductable 20 days into the new year. Which might be a little easier to bear if he could give the new doctor one reason why I couldn't stay on the bipap! Old doctor never said a word to me about switching machines, just had the DME call me in the day after my appointment. He wrote on my billing code that I had complex apnea, but the new doc said every single central on my titration study was a sleep-onset central.

My insurance company must be very, very happy with the timing.

Ow! Bummer, Bons. Sure am sorry you are getting tagged w/so much so soon in the year. Its so much easier to meet our deductable w/a blood draw here, an ultrasound there, spread out over a couple of months .... that's a tough one so early in the year, so soon after Christmas, etc., etc.

I really thought I was in a very similar boat! I converted my cpap machine from rental to purchase in December, since we had reached our out of pocket maximum for the year. Then, saw a new doc on Jan 3rd. She switched me to a BiPap machine. Ugh! My DME battled it out with the insurance company, and got them to "take back the check" from the cpap (it was literally still in the mail!). So, turns out I didn't actually "buy" the cpap. Then, on to purchase the BiPap. The insurance decided that they would waive the 2 month rental requirement, since I had already been on cpap. Great...that means the whole bill right up front. I figured we'd come more than half way towards my $3000 deductible for this year. Now here's the "wait a minute" moment. I checked online for my claims (Explanation of Benefits) today to see just how far toward the deductible we got. Low and behold, the insurance company pays differently for DME than it does for ANYTHING else! They paid a percentage right up front. Our cost will be $600, roughly, or about 30% of what I thought we'd be paying. Amazing!