New: Should I skip the DME

It occurred to me after my previous post that it may be perfectly legal for the DME to sell you all the parts for the BiPAP-auto separately if they want to. They could even bill you separately for the each of the following items:
- machine
- hose
- power cord
- carrying bag
- plastic wrappers
- cardboard box
- SmartCard

Whether this is good business practice is another matter. Whether insurance companies might have a problem with this is also a consideration. It is common in the medical field for supplies to be sold piecemeal, so I suspect it would be hard for insurance companies to have a policy which prohibits the practice.

Anybody have insights on this?

Regards,
Bill

Real quick, before I forget it...I am facing my machine and on the left side,
it says BiPAP ! auto and the auto is in red letters, hard to see.
The machine has a green sticker that says "Bi-Flex breathing is believing"
and on the front end it says Respironics.

I want to post this info right now, then I will come back in a minute. The
RPT will be here in about 30 minutes. This is a supervisor I think. Nice lady,
but the man who came out was also very nice.

dllfo wrote:Real quick, before I forget it...I am facing my machine and on the left side,
it says BiPAP ! auto and the auto is in red letters, hard to see.
The machine has a green sticker that says "Bi-Flex breathing is believing"
and on the front end it says Respironics.

I want to post this info right now, then I will come back in a minute. The
RPT will be here in about 30 minutes. This is a supervisor I think. Nice lady,
but the man who came out was also very nice.

You got the "Mercedes" model. GOOD DEAL!

(does it have the smart card with it?)

Best wishes,

Den

To answer one question--a supervisor from Apria will be here in about 23
minutes. She is bringing all the nose masks they have on the shelf in an
effort to help me. I told her my wife had canceled her appointments today,
just so she can drive me around. And if I didn't mention it, part of my
problems are the morphine I take. It depresses the respiratory system.
Frustrating, but necessary. I have several major problems all at once.
If this DME guy stole my SmartCard...his supervisor will be here and I will
look her in the eye, asking her where it went. She isn't dumb. If he is doing
that, she will figure it out, plus I will mention this forum and that it apparently does happen. Not that her people would steal...but "some" people apparently do. I don't want to directly accuse anyone.

NightHawkeye - Thanks again sir, I love the way you can take the postins
apart and then put your answers next to our questions.
Why do you use the Oximeter? I used one...one time and
felt like it gave the specialist more info than all the tests
put together. I walked about 50-75 feet in the hospital
hallway. It said I had lost over 10% of my oxygen. To me,
and I am not a dr. but that seems noteworthy.
Again, why do YOU use it?

pratzert --Steal our manuals? Ouch. That seems dumb. Too easy to call the manufacturer and complain about it. I already told Tricare my smart
card was missing. I asked them if my insurance paid for it and the lady said
if it is listed in the manual, it was paid for.

Thanks again

dllfo wrote: NightHawkeye - Thanks again sir, I love the way you can take the postins
apart and then put your answers next to our questions.
Why do you use the Oximeter? I used one...one time and
felt like it gave the specialist more info than all the tests
put together. I walked about 50-75 feet in the hospital
hallway. It said I had lost over 10% of my oxygen. To me,
and I am not a dr. but that seems noteworthy.
Again, why do YOU use it?

After many years of nighttime sleeping problems, serious eye problems at too young an age, some other medical issues, a hundred or more inconclusive diagnostic tests, and after failing two sleep studies about a dozen years apart, I finally concluded that nobody but me was gonna get to the bottom of whatever my problems were. A continuously recording oximeter was one of several instruments I considered initially, but the oximeter just made a lot of sense as a diagnostic tool, and when I checked around I found that I could rent one relatively inexpensively.

After renting a short while, I opted to buy one. I found that most nights the desats weren't really all that bad, but usually below 90%, and some nights showed significant repeated oxygen desats. When I took the data in to my sleep doc, he wrote me a prescription for an xPAP machine of choice, and that's how I started this adventure.

I continue to use the oximeter though and find that it helps me fine tune the therapy at least as much as the xPAP machine data does.

Regards,
Bill

I had my study on a wednesday night, friday the local Apria branch called and set me up with an appointmemt for the following thursday.

I ended up with a respironics Auto BiPAP, F&P HH, F&P FlexiFit 407 mask

My inital co-pay was like $60 for the mask and such that night...... then it is going to run me $16 a month. My Insurance is United Healthcare, they refused to buy the machine till the 12th month. I was told by apria that by the time the 12th month comes they will have bought the machine.

oh and yes my smartcard was there too

You might consider billmyinsurance.com which is the sister company to cpap.com the sponsor. If you haven't seen your local DME yet they may be able to provide you with the equipment of your choice with you paying only the co-pay.

Unfortunately, if your DME has already set up billing they apparently won't get involved.

OK, I asked the lady from Apria about the smart card. She said it is their
standard practice to take the card out. I told her Tricare said they paid for
it and while I may not need it now, I wanted it. She said she would mail it
to me. Very nice about it, but you are right, some companies do that. The
first time I ever noticed a business doing this was guns. Some dealers would
offer you a lower price, but remove two of the clips or something like that.

After discussing some of my health issues, she said I may need the humidifier in a short period of time. Any opinions on that??

I asked her about the software and ...IF I understood her correctly, she said
they are not supposed to sell us, or give us the software. That is for doctors
only. I don't know enough about it to read it, so I didn't argue or anything.

My owner's manual said I was supposed to get the smart card, but I don't
think it said anything about the software. Does anyone out there know if we
are "supposed" to get software with our units?

If we need software, can we buy it? How much?

dllfo wrote:My owner's manual said I was supposed to get the smart card, but I don't think it said anything about the software. Does anyone out there know if we are "supposed" to get software with our units?

If we need software, can we buy it? How much?

They don't want you to have it because you might become an informed user.
It's available here (the sponsor of this forum):

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... eader.html

There will also be another smart card that will come with the software.
It's not hard to understand, either.
It was actually created by Respironics for the DMEs, RTs and doctors, but many of the Respironics users here have it to monitor their therapy. It really is invaluable. Personally, I can't imagine doing this without it.

Best wishes,

Den

Thanks Den,
I see that software is for the Pro 2, but it will work with the Auto BiPap too?

If my new setup lets me sleep every night I may not mess with it, but if this
is just a first step...I will need it. Put another way...IF this equipment allows
me to sleep every night, I am not sure why I would need the software, but if
I am still struggling, the software sounds like a valuable investment. I hope
I am asleep in a few hours.

Thanks again......Dave

dllfo wrote:Thanks Den,
I see that software is for the Pro 2, but it will work with the Auto BiPap too?

If my new setup lets me sleep every night I may not mess with it, but if this
is just a first step...I will need it. Put another way...IF this equipment allows
me to sleep every night, I am not sure why I would need the software, but if
I am still struggling, the software sounds like a valuable investment. I hope
I am asleep in a few hours.

Thanks again......Dave

Dave,

The 1.6 version should work with ALL Respironics machines that collect nightly sleep statistics.

I hope your new setup gives you lots of good sleep.

Den

does insurance usually pay for the cost of the software??

gecko1977a wrote:does insurance usually pay for the cost of the software??

I'm afraid not. But, it's cheaper than several trips back to the doctor to find out how you're doing......you'll already know.

Den

yeah it may be cheaper than going back to the sleep doc, seeing as he is not in network on my insurance, but is the only one at the only local hospital (insurance refuses to pay the network gap)

I asked to day if they read the card - no
why? cause the insurance companies do not require it

now this is just freakin stupid!!!! they woul rather pay (for most folks) for you to go back time after time, have study after study. rather than pay for a $200 piece of software

do ya think that i can use my fexible spending account $$$ for this, as it is medical expense not covered by insurance.