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Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
#21
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-19-2015, 05:08 PM)Ailu Wrote: Okay so the Respiratory Therapist called today, and she said the machine I want, the Phillips Respironics DS560 Auto is out of stock, but she has a PR DS460 Pro that she said is just as good. She told me that with my low pressure (7) I really didn't need an auto, and sometimes autos can cause arousels. She also said that what's really neat about the Pro, is it can go into "auto" for 60 days if need be, so it's really just as good. I told her I was really stuck on the DS560, but to let me do some research and I'd get back to her.

What do you CPAP Gurus think? Should I hold out for the DS560? Or is the DS460 pretty comparable? What exactly would I be giving up, to get a machine a week earlier? Thanks a bunch!

I would wait or I would look into the ResMed Air Sense 10 auto set for her. It is fully data capable and has a special program for women. I am a man and I use one I find the setting for women is really gentle and doesn't wake me up.
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#22
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-20-2015, 01:56 PM)Adoniscmj Wrote: I would look into the ResMed Air Sense 10 auto set for her. It is fully data capable and has a special program for women. I am a man and I use one I find the setting for women is really gentle and doesn't wake me up.

Why? She already researched the machines and decided on the Respironics based on the fact that they are therapeutically equivalent, that both have equivalent reputations for quality, and because one of its intended uses includes primitive camping situations. Powering the Respironics with battery is the easier option than the current batch of Resmed units. The thing that set apart the S-10 for Her was that it was the only Resmed unit that tracked RERAs. The Respironics 560 provided that data long before the S-10 came along - and without having to get a special version of the unit.

OMMOHY
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#23
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-19-2015, 05:08 PM)Ailu Wrote: What do you CPAP Gurus think? Should I hold out for the DS560? Or is the DS460 pretty comparable? What exactly would I be giving up, to get a machine a week earlier? Thanks a bunch!

NO - tell Apria to stuff it. Insist on the unit you want and for which the script was written. I read their position as "We already have a 460 sitting here on the shelf gathering dust and here is somebody we can unload it on. If we have to get her a 560, we have to pay PR for another unit and we still have a 460 on the shelf we will have to hold until we find some other gullible idio, er, patient, to take it."

You may have to work with Apria because of insurance, but you don't have to work in Apria's interests.

OMMOHY
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#24
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-20-2015, 02:58 PM)OMyMyOHellYes Wrote:
(06-19-2015, 05:08 PM)Ailu Wrote: What do you CPAP Gurus think? Should I hold out for the DS560? Or is the DS460 pretty comparable? What exactly would I be giving up, to get a machine a week earlier? Thanks a bunch!

NO - tell Apria to stuff it. Insist on the unit you want and for which the script was written. I read their position as "We already have a 460 sitting here on the shelf gathering dust and here is somebody we can unload it on. If we have to get her a 560, we have to pay PR for another unit and we still have a 460 on the shelf we will have to hold until we find some other gullible idio, er, patient, to take it."

You may have to work with Apria because of insurance, but you don't have to work in Apria's interests.

OMMOHY

Patients don't have to be gullible OMMOHY. Many don't really care to monitor their care. I'll bet there are many that aren't even getting their therapy because their masks are a couple of years old and leak, leak, leak. Even with diabetes, you'd be surprised how many just let the dust gather on their blood sugar units. The thing is, why are they giving crap to someone who obviously KNOWS that there is a difference and why is the Sleep Center doing that when they know it's not an equivalent unit?
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#25
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
The bottom line is they will always push the unit they make the most money on, so you have to tell them you will not change your mind and they get you what you want or you will go some where else to buy it. The DME played the same game with me and I just said I will go to a different DME to get what I want. Like others have said you have to live with it for the next 5 years so get what you want not what they want you to have.
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#26
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
I think you should just take any piece of junk they offer you and be thankful they gave you something.
After all your health is really not important, to them, as long as you survive long enough for them to get paid.
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#27
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-20-2015, 09:33 AM)DariaVader Wrote: Does it matter to BS where you get it? If not, I would way rather pay 10% of the online price vs 10% of a DME price... and it sounds to me like sleep center = DME, by the way.

Oh man, I wish! But unfortunately it's either thru Apria or the local hospital. That's it. If I was able to buy online and be reimbursed, I'd have the machine ordered by now. I'm a crazy online shopping fool. The USP guy knows everything about me. Too-funny
-Ailu
Reformed CPAP Outlaw
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#28
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-19-2015, 05:27 PM)Ailu Wrote: Thanks Parker! She also offered a ResMed S10, but I told her I couldn't use a ResMed because I dry camp often, and it doesn't hook up to a battery with the best results. Otherwise, I would have definitely considered it!

(06-19-2015, 05:18 PM)parkerdt Wrote: Hold out for the machine you want, IMO. Or, ask about the equivalent ResMed - (the S10 AutoSet). It really is not significantly more difficult to run on batteries, but you do need the ResMed 12 to 24 volt brick.

They have a battery for the resmed unit that is portable, however if portability and needing to run on battery there is a better option check out the Z1. If I were to travel or camp this would be my choice.
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#29
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-20-2015, 03:09 PM)Mosquitobait Wrote: Patients don't have to be gullible OMMOHY. Many don't really care to monitor their care. I'll bet there are many that aren't even getting their therapy because their masks are a couple of years old and leak, leak, leak. Even with diabetes, you'd be surprised how many just let the dust gather on their blood sugar units. The thing is, why are they giving crap to someone who obviously KNOWS that there is a difference and why is the Sleep Center doing that when they know it's not an equivalent unit?

Um, I obviously need to clarify some things. I think we are on the same page here.

I was not saying anybody was gullible. A lot of DMEs treat patients like they are. Or at least they hope they are. And I was speaking third person, as the DME that is trying to push stuff that is not well suited to what the informed patient needs/wants. think they see or hope everybody crossing their door is "gullible" - somebody that doesn't know, doesn't want to know, or just "trusts" them because they are the "experts". There are a bunch of DMEs that are, IMO, unethical in that they want to push the lowest price stuff on folks, and tell them it is better stuff and "just as good" as what the informed pt needs/wants.

My feeling through the years is that there are a few really good DMEs out there - the last two I have dealt with fall in that category. Others, before that, I felt like were only interested in getting my insurance member and group numbers and then pushing the lowest end stuff they could get away with. That kind of sounds like the case here where the pt is educated and has the Dr's backing, but they none the less seem to want to push whatever piece of inventory they already have on the shelf.

Talking with these kinds of DMEs I always got the read that they thought they knew it all, and in any case, felt like I was stealing food from their babies' mouth when I would suggest that they were not doing all the could/should for me. They made me feel like I was bothering them.

I understand that there are a lot of people whose situation would benefit greatly from the 460 model. I enjoy my APAP, but I could probably muddle through with a CPAP, and I do not usually even bother to check data unless I am having an unusual problem or changing things like a new mask or something. I normally just go by how I am feeling.

These don't apply in this particular case.

OMMOHY
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#30
RE: Help! The RT is pushing another CPAP machine. What do???
(06-20-2015, 09:05 PM)Adoniscmj Wrote: They have a battery for the resmed unit that is portable, however if portability and needing to run on battery there is a better option check out the Z1. If I were to travel or camp this would be my choice.

Consensus is that the Z1s are sub-optimal for many folks. A lot of folks find them noisy and uncomfortable. I used one for a short while and never felt as good about them as the Respironics or Resmed machines I had used.

And battery? Please, not the power pack that HDM is peddling. Many folks that actually have them and used them report that they do not run nearly as long as HDM represents (I have not). And for primitive camping, you would need to take a bunch of them to give you air for the duration of the trip if there is no source of power to efficiently charge them each day, like access to AC power. And they cost a LOT.

You can still use a more capable and much more affordable deep cycle battery with the Z1 just like virtually any unit except the Resmeds.

The Resmed units are kludgy when it come to running from batteries compared to just about everyone else. They really pooed the scrooch with their design. Everybody else, you can pretty much hook up to a bigger deep cycle battery and just go. (I advise foregoing the heated humidification when operating from battery.) No need for CPAP specific battery or DC DC converter like the Resmed requires.

OMMOHY

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