10-31-2021, 03:25 AM
RE: The supplies keep coming...
Just before I pinched off DME CPAP supplies coming from Florida (?) I hoped to qualify for a FL-needed VAuto to replace--put on standby or hold for lending-- my M/C-Anthem paid low hour Autoset. It was nearing its 5-year mark in September of 2020. I stopped supply deliveries back then and those remain stopped as I still have plenty of all supplies.
The shipping-supplying DME site in Florida promptly began pushing me to replace my Autoset that September. I told them don't call me more, I'll call you, but soon had to forcefully remind them of that and they did stop pestering. But I do get come back letters, etc.
I contacted my pulmonologist to help me get the VAuto. He, on the phone when working to treat Covid in a hospital, said it was doubtful I would qualify and, in any case, I'd be required to have a supporting sleep study and he doubted it would support VAuto replacement by insurance.
Of course all was dead in the water with C19, no way to do anything then if I had wanted to and I did not want to pointlessly waste the money and time.
As a long time well FL-treated user of an out of pocket used VAuto, some months later I did discuss with the reasonable local DME manager my getting a new Resmed A11 when available. I could sell it as truly new and recoup most of the cost a new out of pocket VAuto. But he said that, minimally, I would have to establish initial compliance to keep the machine, and I believe he said, that I'd have show compliance near my 1-year mark of use to own it.
I had no stomach for the nonsense or somehow gaming the system any more than I've stated.
In the end I bought a new VAuto out of pocket for a low price from one of the suppliers on the ApneaBoard list (soon after that, it was removed from the ApneaBoard list).
The system
it seems: Sleep study cost + new A11 cost: OK....................but VAuto cost = new A11 cost + a couple or few hundred dollars: not OK without costly sleep study.
It could be, I suppose, that an in--lab sleep study costs less than I think, but I'd guess it's much more than the cost difference between a VAuto and the new A11.
The shipping-supplying DME site in Florida promptly began pushing me to replace my Autoset that September. I told them don't call me more, I'll call you, but soon had to forcefully remind them of that and they did stop pestering. But I do get come back letters, etc.
I contacted my pulmonologist to help me get the VAuto. He, on the phone when working to treat Covid in a hospital, said it was doubtful I would qualify and, in any case, I'd be required to have a supporting sleep study and he doubted it would support VAuto replacement by insurance.
Of course all was dead in the water with C19, no way to do anything then if I had wanted to and I did not want to pointlessly waste the money and time.
As a long time well FL-treated user of an out of pocket used VAuto, some months later I did discuss with the reasonable local DME manager my getting a new Resmed A11 when available. I could sell it as truly new and recoup most of the cost a new out of pocket VAuto. But he said that, minimally, I would have to establish initial compliance to keep the machine, and I believe he said, that I'd have show compliance near my 1-year mark of use to own it.
I had no stomach for the nonsense or somehow gaming the system any more than I've stated.
In the end I bought a new VAuto out of pocket for a low price from one of the suppliers on the ApneaBoard list (soon after that, it was removed from the ApneaBoard list).
The system
it seems: Sleep study cost + new A11 cost: OK....................but VAuto cost = new A11 cost + a couple or few hundred dollars: not OK without costly sleep study.It could be, I suppose, that an in--lab sleep study costs less than I think, but I'd guess it's much more than the cost difference between a VAuto and the new A11.
I have no particular qualifications or expertise with respect to the apnea/cpap/sleep related content of my posts beyond my own user experiences and what I've learned from others on this site. Each of us bears the burden of evaluating the validity and applicability of what we read here before acting on it.
Of my 3 once-needed, helpful, and adjunctive devices I have listed, only the accelerometer remains operative (but now idle). My second CMS50I died, too, of old age and the so-so Dreem 2 needs head-positioning band repair--if, indeed, Dreem even supports use of it now.
Of my 3 once-needed, helpful, and adjunctive devices I have listed, only the accelerometer remains operative (but now idle). My second CMS50I died, too, of old age and the so-so Dreem 2 needs head-positioning band repair--if, indeed, Dreem even supports use of it now.
