CPAPtalk.com

"A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me..."

The Choker wrote:

mstevens wrote: ... Such a system will likely never be available to most Americans because in every respect this system is a fantastic example of everything that's right with socialized medicine. .... There's probably no way that the average American will ever be willing to risk spending his own money to save the life of someone else's child, especially if that child has the wrong shade of skin or speaks with the wrong accent.

Anyone who thinks racist charges were not made in this thread has a self-serving mental block.

Really? That is the main point you got from the post?

Wow.

SleepingUgly wrote:"A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me..."

That's not what you said last night.

rocklin wrote:I volunteer to attempt this with my DME.

Is anyone else interested?

Naw... I wouldn't be. My DME is just okay - not bad enough to go somewhere else, but not good enough to highly recommend... I wouldn't want to be any more involved with them than I already am. PFP

ems wrote:My DME is just okay - not bad enough to go somewhere else, but not good enough to highly recommend

Good point, ems.

OK, maybe I set the bar too high.

Perhaps we should grade them on a curve.

Don't want to end up with just three "recommended" DMEs for the entire contiguous continent of North America*.



*(not including Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico)

Lower the bar, serve booze, grade on the curve, then maybe the worst (most challanged ones) will be picked by closing time. Jim

Goofproof wrote:serve booze, grade on the curve, then maybe the worst (most challanged ones) will be picked by closing time. Jim

Sir, CPAPtalk isn't an L.A. singles bar, even at 5 minutes to closing time, we maintain some semblance of dignity.

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Here is a thought on a DME rating site
Do it in a moderated wiki site

Or we could collect the data in a Survey monkey site and post on a website. I could help with this but it would have to be after my conference is over in mid February

I think a non commercially sponsored site driven by consumers would be the way to go, it would help drive business to the good ones and out the bad ones.

rocklin wrote:

Good DMEs do exist. I have one.

Let's stop bitching and publicly, loudly, drive business to them.

Or, if you have the choice, publicly, loudly, drive business our sponsor, CPAP.com.

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Now here's an idea:

Why don't some of us take responsibility for negotiating a discount, a gift, something, with each of the "good DMEs" (As we'll come to define them, a rating that we can decide to remove if they change their stripes) if the member belongs to CPAPtalk (and can prove it), and moves their busines to that DME.

Part of the negotiation will be that they must keep track of the number of people referred to them, and the gross dollar amount those people have delivered.

I volunteer to attempt this with my DME.

I will tell you the problem with that and that may be what you are subtly driving at. If you go to the forum member list and click on "Posts" to sort it in descending order you will see 60,000 members. But you will also see that there are only a few active members with posts in the thousands. Of these few active member a small number of them are posting over and over about horrible DMEs.

I posit that most people that come here figure things out quickly and get on their way. But you have this very small number of people that sit on their butts and constantly gripe in the forum about DMEs.

Now I am not saying that there are not problems with DMEs - I have encountered them myself. I am saying that most people figure it out and get on their way.

I also maintain that the great majority of people are not interested in data and would not care to do anything if you showed them your data. I discussed this with my doctor while I was showing him my reports and said it would be great if everyone had their own data. He reminded me that his office reads the cards of all his patients (he prescribes only ResMed Autoset and BIPAP) and shows the data to his patients. He said, "Most of my patients that see the data don't care to make any changes to improve their therapy."

But back to my point, you have a small number of chronic gripers here. They would make almost zero impact on cpap.com sales under your idea.

I agree. It's a shame how 99% of the DMEs give the other 1% such a bad name.

Therapist wrote:

rocklin wrote:

Good DMEs do exist. I have one.

Let's stop bitching and publicly, loudly, drive business to them.

Or, if you have the choice, publicly, loudly, drive business our sponsor, CPAP.com.

.
________________________________________________________
.


Now here's an idea:

Why don't some of us take responsibility for negotiating a discount, a gift, something, with each of the "good DMEs" (As we'll come to define them, a rating that we can decide to remove if they change their stripes) if the member belongs to CPAPtalk (and can prove it), and moves their busines to that DME.

Part of the negotiation will be that they must keep track of the number of people referred to them, and the gross dollar amount those people have delivered.

I volunteer to attempt this with my DME.

I will tell you the problem with that and that may be what you are subtly driving at. If you go to the forum member list and click on "Posts" to sort it in descending order you will see 60,000 members. But you will also see that there are only a few active members with posts in the thousands. Of these few active member a small number of them are posting over and over about horrible DMEs.

I posit that most people that come here figure things out quickly and get on their way. But you have this very small number of people that sit on their butts and constantly gripe in the forum about DMEs.

Now I am not saying that there are not problems with DMEs - I have encountered them myself. I am saying that most people figure it out and get on their way.

I also maintain that the great majority of people are not interested in data and would not care to do anything if you showed them your data. I discussed this with my doctor while I was showing him my reports and said it would be great if everyone had their own data. He reminded me that his office reads the cards of all his patients (he prescribes only ResMed Autoset and BIPAP) and shows the data to his patients. He said, "Most of my patients that see the data don't care to make any changes to improve their therapy."

But back to my point, you have a small number of chronic gripers here. They would make almost zero impact on cpap.com sales under your idea.

Very well said Therapist. It's called personal responsibility. I personally know about a dozen people who have OSA. Only one keeps up with his data and the rest could care less. All of the others don't even want to tallk about it. I am amazed. They will take the word of their DME that every thing is OK even though the only data the DME is interested in is compliance. It's one of the resaons so many people fall for scams every day by putting their trust into the hands of a stranger.

The OP thought she could come to this forum and pull the wool over the eyes of the members. Little did she know that most of the ones who visit on a regular basis knew more about the subject at hand than she did. It was fun to read most of the post.

Therapist
If you have "figured it out" then why are you still here? I am here to "pay it forward" if it wasn't for the help I received from the folks here when I started this journey, I physically would not be "here" today. Therefore, if I can help one person along the way to better therapy I am doing the same as the great friends here. Most of us are not here to gripe and complain, we are here to help in whatever way we can. If we that have "figured it out" just leave this forum....then who would help others that need the reassurance or the tweeking to get their therapy "figured out".

Therapist wrote:I will tell you the problem with that and that may be what you are subtly driving at. If you go to the forum member list and click on "Posts" to sort it in descending order you will see 60,000 members. But you will also see that there are only a few active members with posts in the thousands. Of these few active member a small number of them are posting over and over about horrible DMEs.

I posit that most people that come here figure things out quickly and get on their way. But you have this very small number of people that sit on their butts and constantly gripe in the forum about DMEs.

Now I am not saying that there are not problems with DMEs - I have encountered them myself. I am saying that most people figure it out and get on their way.

I have had problems with a DME, I post to inform other so they don't make the mistake I made. If this DME continues to try to drag me through the mud I will continue to do the same. I have found a great DME and have no problems telling people how well this DME treats me as well. I just call them as I see them.

I agree that most people just accept what the doc says or the DME says and moves on, or they figure out how to navigate the system and move on as well. But outing the bad DME's, exposing their lies, trickery and deceit is helpful for new CPAP users or the newly diagnoses. What we really need is a consumer driven DME rating site like Angie's List, free of commercial support or influence. That way we could rate them as "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly."

I know many patients who have no idea what medication they are taking. I have caught medication errors and am always astounded when I ask someone what they are taking and they say "a blue pill". There is a great section of the population who trusts that people have their best interests at heart. I know differently after working in a hospital for 30 years.

Therapist wrote: I am saying that most people figure it out and get on their way.

Exactly what I would hope for.

A list of DMEs might contribute to that experience. If not, no sweat.

Seems like a no-brainer, yes?