Changes coming to the DOT physical....

How do you get drivers that say they feel great and don't think they have SA? That's why they need something to look at and pick drivers that might have it. Maybe their is a better system, if anyone knows they should say something.

Just going for SA test does not mean a driver has it. Hopefully the sleep doctor is honest. The money is a problem, their seems to be more and more cheaper SA test.

 

You can't just say "we have got to do something" and then go off on a wild goose chase, just so you can say you are doing something.

If you want to do something, there is NO reason not to do it right. First, let's establish if there IS actually a problem, rather than just saying there probably is.

Second, let's establish actual, real predictors for the problem, not some unscientific charts and numbers based on conjecture.

Third, take the profit motive out of it. Prohibit sleep centers from providing anything but sleep studies. No machines, no follow up care. Take the motive away for finding problems that don't exist.

Never forget that the whole sleep apnea thing was injeted into the rule making process by individuals with huge personal stakes in the sleep study business.

No one should trust ANY doctor with a profit motive in such a subjective area such as sleep apnea.

 

Trusting doctors. That's a joke. I don't know if any of you guys recall how about 4 or 5 years ago in Michigan there was a doctor dr. Fata and he was a cancer doctor. Here's a little story on prophet. He diagnosed close to a hundred patience with having different forms of cancer including my father-in-law. Turns out after this doctor had been pumping radioactive sludge into their bodies better known as chemotherapy it turned out that 78 out of the hundred patients did not have cancer to begin with but after the chemo he had killed 4 of his patience and because of all the chemo that was pumped into my father-in-law he now is very ill when he didn't have cancer to begin with. In hindsight I guess you should always get a second opinion but his primary physician who check him out first recommended dr. F very highly. And for a long time this doctor was a reputable dr. And I guess he had some serious money issues that made him turn to making wrong decisions and destroying people's lives well he's in prison now and his wife took off with all the money she could pull together before the government seized everything he had. Sorry not trying to hijack your thread just talking about doctors and Prophets yeah a lot of them may have started out to make a difference and help people but I believe in the end they're just in it for themselves and some of them don't care who they step on or who's lives they destroy

 

AMEN! The two sleep centers that I've been to, do NOT supply DME. So really their only "profit motive," would be making you come back every so often for a checkup, both of you and your machine. And this is only because insurance mandates it if you want them to pay their part of the DME.

Otherwise, it makes as much sense as going to an audiologist who supplies hearing aids. Just how many folks do you think THEY will tell, "Oh your hearing isn't too bad. You don't need one yet." Ain't gonna happen.

 

The doctors that recommend what the FMCA should look at have already agreed their is a problem. They, the doctors also said these are the ways to see who might have it. The neck size and BMI chart. Those doctors also keep pushing the SA testing.

They keep pushing it because they already believe it's a problem. If you get a SA test. We are not sleep doctors so we can't know everything but you can see how they score a sleep test if you believe a doctor is lying or trying to get everyone on a SA because he getting kick backs. They score SA test on events per hour. An event has or is supposed to be 10 seconds long to count as one event. 1-4 Events Per Hour is normal for everyone. The problems are when people go above that and are having 5-100 Event Per Hour. That's what they say anyway. Once we know how they score a SA test we have some insight as to how the system works.

 

Like the person said the doctors don't sell CPAP machine. The DME sell them with all kinds of other medical equipment

 

You can't take the profit out of it when the whole health care system in this country is based on profit. Until that changes, you can never truly trust the system. Hence why I refer to it as the American Profitcare system instead of healthcare.

 

I understand where you're coming from here. I don't like it either. Nor do I know how it could be changed.
I believe there are two choices. What we have now, or EVERYTHING about health care run by the government. I don't know about you, but I absolutely don't want MY health care dictated by some bureauacrat who has never seen me, will never see me, nor have any desire to see me! Hell, it's bad enough that the insurance companies are able to dictate what kind of medical care you get. Just imagine how much worse it would be screwed up, if the government actually ran it.

 

As a result of some of the injuries I sustained in Afghanistan, I have an obstructed upper respiratory tract, aka SA. I have the CPAP, and a 12v cord for the truck. It has changed my life for the better.

However, my contribution to this thread is how much it pisses me off to only get a 1 year renewal on my med card. I have the compliance data and everything checks out, pass the rest of the physical with flying colors. If I am complying with treatment, and prove it, why can't I get the same two years as anyone else? Seems like a money grab with no actual medical basis to me.

 

I'm from Canada and I love universal health care so we won't be agreeing on this one any time soon my friend haha.


Ed