my DME is harrassing me !

cosmo wrote:Not a peep in a month, hope your treatment is going well.

She's still here. Just got the SleepyHead going a few days ago. Overall doing well except for some short hour issues.
I talked to her just a couple of days ago. She's a trooper.

Report your DME to your State Respiratory therapy board. Play hardball. Playing hardball is the only thing most of these medical and health insurance assholes understand. I have a "take no prisoners" attitude and approach with them. I take no sh*t from DMEs, health insurance nor medical doctors. I will not hesitate to file formal written complaints against them with the state respiratory therapy board, my state medical board if its an MD or Nurse or NP or the state insurance board if its insurance. Hell, I have even threatened one or two medical "professionals" that I would "call the law on them." I had one break down sobbing crying on the phone with me when I did that. They are assholes and are greedy and deep down inside they know it and there is nothing wrong with making lots of money, but its not cool making it off of really sick and down and out folks.

It will get them off your back and the odds are you will start getting calls from real people instead of robo calls. Robo calls is totally inappropriate for a newbie. When I was a newbie, I got real person DME calls the first few months. But that was back in 2007. Times have changed for the worse.

There was a time when I used to try to be nice to these people and after a while, I realized being nice to them sometimes just does not work.

Nobody should be robo calling a CPAP newbie and threatening them that if they "hang up their insurance will no longer pay for their CPAP therapy." Adjusting to CPAP is a major life transformation period. It takes at least a full month, most more than a month to adjust. It took me about six weeks to adjust, two or three months before I began to feel fully acclimatized to the CPAP world and using that gear. Last thing I would have needed was some "robo call shithead" calling me threatening to cut off my CPAP therapy, for any reason.

Again, report your DME to your state respiratory therapy board. Tell the board your DME's robo calls are upsetting you and irritating you and interfering with your transitioning to the CPAP. I guarantee you, the harassment will stop soon after you file a written complaint. Send it in laser printed, on good quality paper, using proper English, send it certified mail and return card (green card at the USPS) requested. That way you will have a guarantee your written complaint was indeed received at your State's Respiratory Therapy board.

Many DMEs and many health insurance companies make me sick.

Eric

Summer Rain wrote:I have not had an easy time adjusting to my Cpap.........my body is just sort of "freaking out" at all of the changes it entails and it has also been very hard for me on an emotional level, as well. I already had a" lot on my plate" and I guess I wasn't prepared for the transiton I would have to go through starting Cpap. Anyway...I just decided to take my time and keep reading and learning and sort of "growing" into becoming a Cpap user...one day at a time.............? I let myself get out from under the pressure of having to "get it right" immediately.....because that just wasn't gonna happen! So....I would just let myself sleep without my Cpap.....because I WAS SO VERY TIRED!!!!.....and Cpap gave me insomnia.......then, when I did use it, my throat would get so dry, I couldn't even swallow....so just the throat dryness would wake me up, after just an hour or two? Then, I started learning about mask liners and found them helpful....so that was a" perk"...I started making my own out of t-shirts...and they felt so much better!!!! So...slowly I have been "making friends" with my mask! I wore it for an hour and a half, again, last night! Then, TONIGHT, (SUNDAY, AROUND DINNER TIME) I get a call from the DME (which is a "vast organization", here.) And it was a teleprompter, not a person... And they said that if I hung up and didn't answer their questions, my insurance wouldn't pay for my Cpap? Then they asked me quetions about how often I was using my Cpap and for how many hours each time etc......I had to answer? Now, I am concerned that if I said the wrong thing they will report it and the insurance won't pay? I see my Doctor in a few days...which will be the first time I've talked to my doctor, since the sleep test. I didn't get to talk to a person on the phone, so I tried to call them back and got their answering service...who said that they were closed on SUN. ! So I said ,well, why are they "harrassing me" on Sunday, then? I hate their "impersonal service" and I am worried that my insurance won't pay because I told them the truth... i.e. I haven't been using my Cpap that much?