Be Leary of Concentra!

Doctors are running scared now because of lawsuits; afraid some lawyer will take them to the cleaners.

 

I have heard of a trucking company who has the apnea test and the drivers had to have the c-pap with the printout. I believe it is a company who had someone they were tied into doing the testing. The person stated that a person had to be I believe 90% complaint using the machine or they wouldn't get the med card renewed.

It is one of the mega chains that was doing this.


Hope you get this right because real soon like the med cards are supposed to be put into your state's system the same day you go for your renew. It would automatically say you were not certified then if the dr turned you down.

This was dated May of 2013, on Overdrive
http://www.overdriveonline.com/fmcs...aign=site_click&utm_source=next_post_slideout

 

why would anyone believe a cpap usuage without a printout?

 

Ok totally green here but I'll throw it out anyway....and then duck.....

There's a Doc here in Houston on the radio saying he can do a small proceedure or has a pill where you don't need a cpap machine anymore. He says sleep apnea will give you a heart attack blah blah. So wasssup? True but like no money or insurance? Or this guy a quack ?

??

 

I have had more than one very good Dr. complain that suit happy attorneys and clients are controlling how they practice medicine. They have to spend more time and money doing CYA BS stuff than what is practical for the patient. It's a crying shame, but it's true. To anyone with any health issues they are managing, I recommend finding a good personal physician that is DOT certified and in the Registry and working with him rather than going to any big chain operation. If it's possible. I realize some companies do require you use their Dr. and if you do get to use your own you may have to foot the bill, unless your health insurance covers an annual physical. That's what I do. My health insurance doesn't cover a DOT physical specifically, but it does cover an annual physical and my Dr. just does a DOT physical as my annual (although it's every other year) and bills it as an annual so my standard $25 copay is what I pay. We don't feel that is dishonest because it is covering a physical which is what it is supposed to cover. A rose by any other name and all that. Just an idea, as the personal physician that can do a DOT and is the same one that is managing the health issues is much more likely to be more practical with the DOT physical part. Just have to make sure he or she is DOT certified and in the DOT Registry.

 

I have a form of it that is termed and defined as psychological because it doesn't really fit any of the physical profiles. I'm slender and have a thinner neck. I don't sleep much in a 24 hour cycle. It's just my body's natural rhythm that every 36 hour period I require about 6 hours sleep, but it is deep sleep. Long up but short and deep down. It's not the normal circadian rhythm. My down curve in the sleep cycle is very steep. A lot of times I have trouble because the REM stage gets so deep my body basically forgets to breathe normal (my respirations get very shallow and way down in frequency - well below normal) until the acid/base balance in the bloodstream gets a little acid from CO2 build up that I gasp a deep breath which starts the upswing in the sleep cycle. I still feel good when I wake, usually, but sometimes I feel "grainy". The machines and such don't work and I'm lucky because it doesn't meet the criteria of sleep apnea as defined by DOT. I have a good relationship with my DM, though, and he knows that if I say I'm tired - I mean it and don't go by the conventional data in the assessment of rest periods. We work out the e-logs best we can. I violate sometimes and sometimes I'm asleep when it says I should be running. DOT inspections are so far, lucky and the times I violated have been unmentioned (usually a 14 hour rule that crossed days so you got to be looking for it - it doesn't really jump out on the graph). In the end, freight's gotta move and we are the one's that move it. We make do.

 

My cpap doesn't have a data reader either and that's why Swift sent me home.

My current doctor does my physicals and I'll get one in next week before the new doctor regs kick in just in case they decide it's not worth the hassle. I should have a newer machine by then.