un-possible

Big Snore · Post by **Big Snore** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 1:21 pm

I actually just had a halfway decent experience with a DME!!! As I posted before I was getting an error message on my c-pap. Well I called my dme and they said "we are sorry your insurance no longer has a contract with us , goodbye" (apria by the way) What to do, what to do?? So I called my insurance (cigna) and after many dead ends finally found a dme who they do deal with. So I set up an appt. with a therapist in her office, so she could troubleshhot my machine. After realizing that unless she was an engineer she wasnt gonna fix it she called respironics. Respironics said it is still under warranty, send it in. She said "my company did not provide this machine" and they said oh well the original dme has to send it in.

This woman then proceeded to argue with them on my behalf!!! They finally agreed to let her send it in. Then she went to her boss to tell her that I needed a machine till mine came back, and her boss went nuts, she said "we cant let him use our machine, he hasnt even purchased anything from us". Once again therapist argued on my behalf, told her boss "This guy needs this machine so he can continue to breathe while he sleeps, I am sorry that money is more important to you than his health" . I dont know if her boss agreed with her but I do know that I came home with a remstar auto w/ c-flex to use until my remstar pro w/c-flex gets back from the shop!!

So maybe the problem with dme's is the owners, but My therapist was top-notch!!

Corey
P.s. Of course I will continue to order supplies from c-pap.com

Titrator · Post by **Titrator** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:24 pm

Hi Big Snore,

I am glad to hear something positive about a local DME. For the years I have been posting on cpap messege boards, this is a first. Maybe there is hope for the folks that go through insurance.

Regards,

Ted/Titrator

christinequilts · Post by **christinequilts** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 8:30 pm

I have a wonderful DME but it took a few tries to find the right one. I have several other medical problems so I deal with them monthly and they have been nothing but professional and caring. If I need something ASAP they will bring it my house which is 30-45 minutes one way...and they have done it any day of the year including Christmas eve one year. My insurance didn't want to pay for my heated humidfier so they wrote the entire cost of it off as they have done with hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars worth of supplies over the past 3 years. If a script has expired they get it from my doctors- I don't have to do anything. They have worked with me to get the best equipment to met my needs and are willing to let me try new products and such.

I had used this same DME when I was a casemanager years ago and we had a client who wanted to come home from a rehab hospital for a weekend visit. The facility had screwed up and not gotten the list of equipment needed until the day she was going home for the first time and even though it was July 4th they got every single thing she needed including a hospital bed within a couple hours.

I know I'm one of the lucky ones and I wish all DMEs could be like mine.

IllinoisRRT · Post by **IllinoisRRT** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 2:25 pm

See, we're not all so bad