Sleep Apnea Test?

Many larger companies are starting to require it to be hired. Not a law (yet), but their own thing.

 

See this thread started a few weeks ago by a fellow member....feel bad for the guy but pretty funny story:

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...er-health/204326-my-sleep-test-adventure.html

 

If you are licensed in INdiana your old dot medical card should work if upgrading at C1 in Indy or other Indiana location. I am going through the USA classes right now. I can say the exactness of all paperwork has exponentially grown since I last drove.

If sleep apnea is a problem, look at Prime. If they want you they will front the expense and you pay them back.

Trucking is changing. Health regulations and the Patriot Act are making it far more difficult to get/keep a job.

I was unemployed for three months in 2010 and have to get someone outside my family to confirm I was unemployed. I don't remember 2010. How will someone else? That is what is going on.

 

I believe it's up to who is giving the physical. Had the some situation, overweight and no symptoms of it doc made me go get one done barely had it by their standards and now stuck with the machine. Also by law they can over give you only a 1 year medical card, if there is a way to get around it I would try to find it cause it is nothing but a hassle.

 

It's only going to get worse . Company man that oversees this talked to me at length and he said in the future they are tightening more regs. and the ability to go to another doc will be lost from records sharing (heath care act ).

I believe it's coming to a point that you will have to be right or hunt another job .

 

Actually it will be the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners rule that takes effect in 2014 that will prevent you from just going to another DOT medical examiner.

All DOT medical exams will need to be done by a medical practionisher (yes, chiropractors, PA's and certain types of special nurses can do DOT physicals) who has taken a special course and passed a certification exam. All DOT physicals when completed will be entered into an FMCSA database available only to medical professionals involved with DOT medical certification. (The confidentiality of your medical information will be protected).

I'm already hearing SCREAMS from drivers that had been going to certain DOT examiners. After the examiners took the course and learned what they were supposed to have been doing for years and started doing it... drivers screamed.

Get ready... you might want to look up a good DOT medical examiner that has already taken the course for your next DOT physical. There is a national NRCME locator on the NRCME website. Get a REAL DOT physical and see where you stand. Better to find out now than be out of work until you get tests or treatment you should have been required to have for years but the doctor that was giving you your DOT physical didn't know the requirements.

 

Reycer,

Most trucking companies will require you to get your DOT physical from the medical provider they specify. Also FMCSA regulations allow companies to use medical qualification requirements that are more strict than the FMCSA requirements.

If the company you are hiring onto used a medical examiner that issued you a conditional DOT medical card pending a sleep study they are within their rights to do so.

Also, if you choose to doctor shop and just find a DOT examiner that isn't screening for sleep apnea you need to be aware that if you fail to tell the next DOT medical examiner that you got a conditional card pending a sleep study and did not get a sleep study you would have "withheld information pertinent to the medical examination". That's a Class I Federal Felony.. do not pass go.... go directly to jail if you EVER have a major accident. The plaintiff's lawyers will subpeona everything. There are several drivers in jail already for hiding sleep apnea.

I've got sleep apnea and getting treated for me was a life changer for the better. There are a lot of other drivers who post on this forum who would agree with me.

I know it's a pain and expensive to get tested. But in one sense it's for your own good if you actually have sleep apnea. If you were screened properly the studies showed that 98% of drivers screened as needing a sleep study when tested actually had sleep apnea.