Cpap vet getting Medicare coverage and a "new patient" exam - need advice please!

[Sleeprider]

My physician is not a sleep specialist, but manages my therapy needs by incorporating a discussion of "how is your bipap therapy going" into each exam. That is documented as a physician contact and is available to the DME if needed. He wrote my last prescription based on my requested settings for the Vauto, and I got my last machine several years before starting Medicare. I suspect I will need to document some additional things for Medicare, but since I have been under continuous care since receiving my last machine, and my 2008 diagnostic study is on record, I should be able to fill future Medicare prescriptions...I hope. Anyway, Medicare is paying for my supplies now along with the BCBS Advanage Plan, so when a new machine is needed I hope everything will be in place. I guess the bottom line is, you don't need a specialist if your doctor is willing to discuss your therapy at routine visits and you are confident in managing your own care under his supervision.

[Feedsack]

Surprisingly I just went through the very thing that you are experiencing. When I was diagnosed with AFIB i knew something was wrong. At that time with help from a friend I self diagnosed my sleep apnea since I had no time for a sleep study! (foolish thing). I got a Repironics auto bipap set it on auto and with time and help from this forum got AHI numbers at times close to 1 and never so high as six. I then went to medicare and was forced to see a pulmonary specials and did sleep studies and titration and ended up with a free to me RESMED aircurve vauto. Im using this now.Yesterday was the first time. So far im not out anything and supposedly they will send me stuff every month as supplies.

[SheitlQueen]

I am new to both Medicare and Sleep Apnea. Was referred to a sleep specialist before I went on Medicare who recommended a home sleep study. Since I was still on my old high deductible insurance, I opted to wait a couple of months until Medicare kicked in. I have found the process efficient and I love that everything has been covered. Had the at home sleep study, went in to the sleep lab for the titration study, went to the DME place and got set up with a bipap and a mask. Went back to the doctor for a compliance visit which went well. He said come back in a year. No problems, no issues, and best of all no out of pocket expense. Even managed to order cpap supplies at the end of December so I don't have to order them after the new year when the medicare deductible resets.

[FormerFed]

Oh, but I can keep it.  I learned through a handy guide BC/BS Federal Employee Program sent me some months before my b'day, "Medicare and Blue - 2019" … if you are already under Federal retiree BC/BS coverage you can keep that as your secondary, it is no longer your primary unless you refuse Medicare.  I recall something that BC/BS rules or coverage changes if you refuse Medicare, but I don't remember what that was as I didn't look into that option, didn't think refusing Medicare was a good idea.  You can bet the farm I double checked with a live body to be sure I was comprehending what I thought I was reading!  It isn't the cheapest way to go, but the guide indicated, with the very pessimistic crystal ball I made up to forecast  what might happen to me this coming year, it selected my current option as the way to go.  I'm liking, also, going thru my 1st "Medicare" year with as much unchanged from previous years as possible, and then start meddling around with it next year during open season if this year's combination of coverage was overkill or too expensive.