The price of a CPAP from a Dr office

I have a friend who visited his doctor today to get the results of his sleep study. He told the doctor that he had a friend (me) that had the same insurance and his friend worked for the same company. He told the doctor that I told him he would do better buying online than buying from a DME.(from his past experience with insurance & DME.)

He also told the doctor that he used my RemStar auto with c Flex(and liked it) and he wanted the doctor to send his prescription to cpap.com. The doctor said she did not like an auto and that he needed straight cpap with a setting of 12.She also told him that some online store uses old parts from various cpap machines and they( CPAP machines) would not hold up and he would be out of money and a cpap machine.So please be careful if he orders online.

The doctor told my friend that she would look after my friend because she sells cpap equipment. Here is the invoice she gave my friend. The machine is for a S7 ResMed and the doctor has put her XX on the items that he needs to buy. She also suggested that he come back to her office for additional follow up visits and to download the results from his machine. You can see the charge below for the download 94660 Evaluation & Management $85.00.

I wanted to add my friend said if I had not pointed out the prices on the cpap equipment and the additional items that should not be charged ( Tubing,headgear,filter) that he would have trusted the doctor and went ahead and purchased the equipment from her. He said he always trust what his doctor tells him.

His doctor seems obviously in this to make a few extra dollars. I just got my REMstar Auto with c-flex and heated humidifier from cpap.com and it's all absolutely new and in the factory packaging from Respironics. AND it came with ALL manuals. I paid EXACTLY what it says on cpap.com web site for my equipment which is definitely all BRAND NEW.

The doctor your friend is speaking to is either not current in their education OR they are outright lying to direct your friend to THEM so they can keep him in their BILLING CYCLE with little regard to his CARE.

Want me to tell you how I REALLY feel?

I would NEVER go back to that Doctor(?) again. Did she also have a used car to sell him?

WOW! ...what a crook.

She was going to sell him a "state of the art" S7 huh? ... talk about old parts! ...I bet Johnny will get a laugh out of this one if he doesn't cry first.

good golly! They had $2022 in charges on that invoice. NO WONDER she wants him to get his equipment from her. I got a new REMstar auto c-flex machine with heated humidifier, all hoses and fittings, AND a new Swift interface (mask) WITH all hoses, headgear, and fittings PLUS some spare stuff and it was ALL BRAND NEW and paid a good deal less than HALF of that.

This kind of shenanigans ticks me off. WE are being taken advantage of, and insurance is going up due to "the high costs of health care". it ALWAYS costs more when you're WASTING MONEY. Those ninnies..... yeah I'm trying not to swear.... but they are ( * )

Did she also have a used car to sell him?

Wader, Yes and if wanted the tires with the car it was $500 extra, Brakes and steering wheel was optional for another $750


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Those prices appear to be about what the DME's in my area wanted to charge me for the stuff I got. I think they all know about how much they can milk the insurance companies for....and US....after all, WE pay the premiums.
I bought mine from CPAP.COM and saved myself and the insurance provider lots and lots of money......and they reimbursed 80% of my costs.

I tried to do a search on something that someone said some months ago in one of the threads, but couldn't find it or who said it......so my apologies to them (I was going to give them credit for it), but it went something like this:

"The only "autos" that doctors like are the German ones in their parking lot."

Tell your friend to get his prescription and NOT buy his equipment from that doctor! CPAP.COM or Billmyinsurance.com would be my recommendations.

Den

th wrote:Did she also have a used car to sell him?

Wader, Yes and if wanted the tires with the car it was $500 extra, Brakes and steering wheel was optional for another $750

You wanted tires with your car??? LOL!

The worst thing is that she LIED about buying online just to make her overpriced junk look better. I bet this is one of those Docs that double bills Medicare.

Those prices seem close to normal for DME prices. Typical of a market competitive based economy.

Typical.

And outrageous.

Seems to me the issue is not so much the prices (although that for sure is atrocious), but that a doctor should be selling cpap equipment in the first place.

Might that be illegal?
Or at least unethical.

No doctor should be selling medical equipment.
Do any others do that?


Linda

I was looking at what my insurance paid for my Sleep Study the other day. The Lab invoiced $2050, the insurance only paid them customary and reasonable at $580. God help you if you ever have to pay for it on your own.

The realism here is that there will always be that certain percent of people who will always say, "yes Doctor" and "whatever you say"
They will pullout their checkbook and pay without question.These docs do not know how to deal with an informed consumer.

This is why this forum is so helpful.
If a person is spineless in dealing with a doc/dme/pharmacy/tire store/airline reservation/hotel reservation, then they will always pay what I call an "IGNORANCE TAX".
these are the people who insist on brand name instead of generic drugs.
The price of education is high, the price of ignorance is much higher.

tomjax-

I think that's why I'm so angry about this and situations like it. THAT WAS ME five years ago. I didn't know anything about apnea and I was diagnosed and literally told that I would die in my sleep if it wasn't treated. And a DME came to my house and gave me "the equipment you need to treat this" and it was like some medeival torture mask. It HURT to wear the damn thing and I ended up quitting in frustration. I went CPAPless for almost 4 more years because of this. I found out my sleep doc was getting kickbacks from the DME. He'd have me come in every 3 months and ask me the same stupid questions and I'd give him the same stupid answers BECAUSE I DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER.

THAT is why I am incensed at the kind of treatment the patient is receiving as mentioned in the start of this post. Ignorance tax is a pretty tough hit to take. I hope to be able to relive someone of that burden. I hope like hell more people find this message board and get educated and I WISH like hell I'd found it 5 years ago.

Thanks for sharing this; it should be a lesson to us all!!

Yardbird: that's terrible, how did you ever discover that your doc was up to that ?!? (ie, receiving kickbacks)

This is a great topic....we've discussed this a lot in my household. My hubby is an ENT doc...and since I've been diagnosed he has been interested in selling CPAP equipment in his office. He and his ENT partners already are in the position of ordering sleep studies for patients--he is thinking that it would be good service to offer "one-stop-shopping" for his patients.

However...HE is aware of CPAP.com (because of me) and their prices and their selection and their level of service...and that is what he wants to emulate, not the high prices of the DME's. Not the outdated equipment and masks...not give only one choice to the patients...etc. And RT's that understand the different machines, masks...the PROCESS of living with CPAP and that could offer better guidance for patients.

I told him slow down...there may very well be a REASON that DME's have to charge so much for the equipment due to insurance reimbursement "games" that are played. There is a lot of research we need to do to determine if this is a good fit.

Another thing that concerns me is the very sentiment that is expressed here..that doctors should never sell medical equipment. I don't agree, but it seems like it often causes people to distrust their doctors and feel that the doctor is in the practice of price-gouging, like this doctor certainly was. Really, I don't know very many doctors who do blatant things to make money...but then I usually know doctors at the top of their field, who are respected and so busy with patients they don't NEED to pad their wallets unethically.

What do you guys think? He was thinking along the lines of having something called, oh...maybe.."The Sleep Store" near or in his office, with several brands of machines, not just one or two...apaps readily available, lots of good masks, helpful, knowledgable RT's.....and GOOD PRICES. Patients obviously would be given a choice as to shop there or not.

Also what if a store like that were available at the sleep center? The same place gives sleep studies and has well-priced equipment available? Would there be a market for something like that? Would that make the whole process easier to handle?

Again, the idea was NOT to price-gouge, but to be better than the DME's on the subject of CPAP and accessories...

Jan