Kaiser Ins and Apria

Hi Terresac -- I'm sorry about what you've gone through. You should be able to walk into any Kaiser facility and go to their Member Services/Business Office and request a copy of the initial test report. It doesn't have to be the facility where you got your test. I would also recommend that you get a copy of your cpap prescription. You are entltled to these documents.

Meantime don't worry too much about not having the the Watch-PAT report yet. While I recommend you get a copy, it isn't going to help you with monitoring your therapy now, and/or making adjustments to your pressure settings that you might need as you get started. The PAT report won't show your prescribed pressure settings or anything like that, in addition to the AHI which you already know it will just show your heart rate and oxygen desaturations on the night you used it -- good information to have in your medical records but not useful with managing your therapy now.

Are you saying that you can no longer get the data from your machine's card into your computer? Can you contact the doctor you spoke with that you liked? You said he's a sleep doctor so can you make a connection with him? Is he the doc who wrote your cpap prescription? If so I would try to contact him (is he on your Kaiser online email list?) and tell him you need to be able to see your therapy data.

Alternatively, do you live within reasonable driving distance of any other Kaiser medical center with a sleep medicine department? I'm curious where you are in northern CA. Feel free to private message me, I'm in the Sacramento area. Another forum member here has had some good experiences with her RT in the Santa Rosa area I believe. If there's anything I can do to help you navigate the system please feel free to contact me.

Go to the medical secretaries department at Kaiser to get a copy of the report. Nobody else can do it. They still mess up all the time, but start there.

The respiratory therapists do have the formulary list and should have take home samples of all the masks they carry.

Remember, you can go to another kaiser facility if you're not happy with the one you're using. Try to find one nearby with a bigger sleep lab staff.

I was able to download and access my data using the Sleepyhead software. Now I'll learn what everything means! Thanks so much for the patch - I have a 60 series. I'm not hung up on the data, I just want access. I'll go down to the secretary's office and request my records.

I have yet to contact Apria, but I might give them a call directly. I don't think that my resp. therapist has time for much follow up. I am on group insurance through my school. I could change plans but that would be a huge change for the rest of my care.

One thing I have learned through this forum is to have patience. There's a good night's sleep around the corner!

don't give apria your credit card number. i was and still am 100% covered. still they ran my card to the max, never reimbursed me. when i complained and wanted an itemized bill they told me if i didn't keep paying they would take away my oxygen life support equipment.
i know this is not for CPAP, but use extreme caution

When I started with Apria, I gave them my debit card number.
A month or so later, I got a free card change, (thanks to Target's sloppy security.)
When Apria tried to use my card (even though I owed them NO MONEY), it was denied.
When they started hounding me for a new card number, I started planning my departure.

Interesting, the main Apria office, told me that I would need to give my card number to them, and likened it to like when you rent a car you have to have the card on file, just in case. I have no co-pay.

I told them I would give my card number to the local office when I picked up my new device. And, then they never asked me for it, so I did not give them my card number. I think because the local office staff did not consider me as a new client- and they thought already had my info . . .