Sleep test?

Yes, legally. One of the questions on the long form is any breathing illnesses, which sleep apnea is.

 

15 years this month for me. My obstructive sleep apnea was so bad I likely would have died from it at some point. So in my case, it truly has been a life saver.

But I sympathize for those who have “marginal” readings and are forced into CPAP usage, or drivers who have to be tested as a prerequisite for employment, only to find the trucking company owns the testing company (I think Crete had this set up years ago. I made it clear I was using my already-owned equipment and refused to be tested by them. They buckled.)

 

Is it just some area that has such a high rate?

I know 1 person who has it...just 1

 

Ok thanks

 

I have talked to literally 100's of people that have been told they need to get tested. Of those 100's of people exactly 1 person came back as not needing a CPAP machine. That one person the Dr. doing the physical refused to give him a card stating he needed to get another test, and the second, exact same test, showed he has apnea.
Now I might be atypical, or all the doctors in Michigan are corrupt, or whatever but as much as I've seen on-line from other people having been required to use a CPAP I would say what I have experienced, and the people I've talked to have experienced, it's very, very rare to "pass" a sleep study and not need a CPAP.

 

So in other words, they didn't even have sleep apnea, he was just a money grubbing crook.

 

Why not ask them what their sleep apnea numbers are ? Then you will know how bad or not bad they have it. Having their sleep apnea numbers should show a pattern pretty quickly. Especially if they all have lower sleep apnea Events or AHI

 

Why bother? When one person I know was at 0.7 events per hour (no, that's not a typo) and still required to use the machine it's all b.s. anyway.

 

I really wish TTR had a dedicated forum basically as a repository for medical examiners. What I mean is a place where drivers can describe their experiences with MEs. Over the last several years what I do when asked to recommend a good ME is to ask people I know in said area. One thing to understand is right now the USDOT/FMCSA has no official OSA guidelines. Congress slapped their hand several years ago and they dropped all of them. What is going on though is the DOT is using "slight of hand" with the MEs. This leads to a murky area. What has happened is MEs take 391.41(b)(5)---

"Has no established medical history or clinical diagnosis of a respiratory dysfunction likely to interfere with his/her ability to control and drive a commercial motor vehicle safely;"

---and took it upon themselves to decide what constitutes OSA guidelines. This is close to shooting fish in a barrel. This is why I feel like the FMCSA needs to add a place on the long form stating there are no official guidelines and give a driver the right to file a lawsuit if they stop the physical but the ME goes on and poisons them in the database.

The crooked behavior with regard to OSA is widespread. I have heard rumors that the CPAP makers as well as others who make OSA testing equipment have been paying for nice vacations for the top people at places like Concentra for years now. I honestly think that the US Congress along with the US Justice Dept needs to start investigating this incestuous relationship!

 

One thing I would love to add is something I heard Robin Cook say. I can't find the video, but he was talking about how the drug companies were giving physicians money and other valuable things so they would write prescriptions for their drugs. Before I retired I had to visit an emergency room in West Memphis because of an infection. The doc wrote a prescription for OxyContin even after I made it clear to him that I did not want it. What I asked for was another painkiller that was not an opioid. To this day I still believe there was something fishy about that. I never filled that prescription I just filled the antibiotic. I have spoken to many people that had to actually state clearly to their doctor they were NOT going to fill a prescription. One such drug is Lipitor. I was speaking to a guy that said he could get Lipitor cheaper by getting generic. The doctor had checked the box stating no generics were authorized to dispense as written. Doctors that do this kind of stuff in some cases get kickbacks if they write so many prescriptions. It is CRITICAL people understand that there are crooked people all over the healthcare industry. OSA is just one area.