Sleep Study Rip-Off

Next up: they'll make drivers put ELDs in their personal vehicles to monitor every driving second they do, be it going to work, at work, or going home from work. And drivers, the sheep they are, will allow it. If an outfit wants you to pay for anything out of pocket, walk away. If an outfit wants you to sign papers in orientation that can be used in court to force YOU to pay for things (such as truck damage) later, walk away. Learn what the word NO means. Then use that word to your advantage. You'll be surprised how powerful NO is.

 

Sue the prick. Malpractice.

Call injured trucker or Bart Durham. Seriously when lawsuits cost more than they make on this scam they will quit.

 

The sleep apnea machines and tests are like the new Hazmat rules and TWIC. Just a money-making scheme. Don't pay for any of it out of pocket. Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah. "But you can write it off next tax filing." Screw that. I imagine a company could make the argument that if you bought its fuel, that would be tax deductible as well. Are YOU going to pay for that fuel? Are YOU going to pay for that sleep apnea machine and the tests?

 

Or, "We worked for...." Always the 400lb "stay-at-home" boss, er uh I mean wife, relating the terrible injustice perpetrated upon her (?) poor hard working, un-assuming husband by the bad truck company.

 

I would buy their fuel if they paid me 6 dollars a mile..

 

Twice now I have told Concentra no. I'm not answering your questions and your not measuring my neck. They said it is required and I told them not by the DOT and not by my company. I'm not playing the game. Got a 2 yr card both times.

 

I like those stories. Drivers, overall, today have no backbone. It's nice to hear I'm not alone out there as far as not putting up with trucking industry and company BS and lies.

 

Concentra is the worst. I have white coat syndrome, so my bp spikes at the office. Over the last 8 years, 3 different doctors diagnosed me with it. I’m 5’10, and weigh 170, and workout regularly. My average bp is 119/77 with a heart rate of 66.

Physicians immediate care, which my company uses never gave me a problem with it. In 2016 when I went for a re-up, my bp was 143/92, pulse was 102. The DR asked me some questions, and I offered him my doctors number, and he said no need to do that. Gave me a 2-year Card. So, April 2017 comes, and because I was being laid off from my job (so I thought), I looked elsewhere for employment. The employer sent me to Concentra. My bp was 148/91, then 145/88. I offered my doctors number, she said no, gave me a 3-month Card, and told me to see my doctor again, and if he writes a doctors note saying I have white coat syndrome, she’ll give me a 1-year Card 3 months from then.

So, the next day, my job offered me a position out of a different location, and I took it. So, I decide to see a new doctor (old doctor was 1.5 hours away) to get a note, after extensive monitoring, including by a 24-hour bp monitor, she gave me a diagnosis, and a note. This year, I wanted to see her to get the note updated for this year. She left the practice, so I found another doctor, jumped through the hoops again, and he gave me the white coat syndrome diagnosis, as well as an extensive doctors note. I went to re-up with my company at Physicians Immediate Care this year, and sure enough my bp was high, 147/92, and 150/86, pulse 101. Gave the medical examiner my Drs note, he took a glimpse and said “okay, I’ll get you a 2-year Card”.

Physicians immediate care at least seems to identify as an individual. Concentra just goes by the book without regards for you as an individual.

 

Im sorry, but generally those who are sick and disabled like msyelf and part of Medicare are not well enough to be driving in the trucking industry. Medicare is incredibly limited to those on disability and after 65 on SS. Even then it's further limiting because you find that many doctors will not take medicare patients. I had a surgery done to extract a tooth two years ago and that surgeon specifically had me sign a form saying that Medicare is not part of the payment. Ultimately my dental insurance paid some (Private third party) and the rest of the 2000 dollar bill was my problem. About half. The medicines were not covered either. 250 dollars for two weeks pain medicine and antibiotics to fight the abscesses found in the sinus cavity above the tooth.

It was a good prodecure but really expensive on my part because again the professional doctor or surgeon knows not to file against Medicare that has succeeded in one goal. Cutting reimbursements below what it costs the doctor to do it.


The co pays for other things like a set of 5000 dollar hearing aides approach a thousand dollars on my end as a medicare covered person. So not only the People carrying the load of billing but I am also enduring a high amount of copay myself in addition to additional premiums each month.

The medical side most certainly benefits when they do file against Medicare for hospitals etc. My last stay there for one week came to 12,000 in billing, settled at 8000 dollars paid by medicare with 1300 of that my problem to pay. My current doctor did a procedure outpatient in his office in Little Rock that was billed in at 10,000 to Medicare but they paid 7000 max. Due to the caps on payouts. I got billed about a thousand of that which is now down to less than 150 to pay. However for this year I expect to pay a couple thousand out of pocket for the doctor anyway directly. (Co pays, billings etc)

Pretty nice to be a doctor with all this big time billing going around.

Finally but not last, if you go to a car shop and learn what it costs to replace say a alternator, you are told exactly the part cost and then the labor costs plus average book value on the amount of time expected to do that work.

If you tried to go to a hospital to learn what it will cost to fix a booboo such as a broken arm, you will discover that the hospital has that coding as a state secret and will over bill everything. That 5.00 bag of IV saline becomes a 300 dollar income to the hospital via the billing to Uncle Sam or to you as a patient via a code entry that hides the true nature of the overbilling.

Not to mention that there is a ongoing shortage of IV Saline nation wide due to a variety of causes, one example would be Hurricane Maria destroying the factory that builds that stuff there in Puerto Rico. 5.00 a bag. Retail. But they will bill uncle sam (And you personally 300 dollars because most people don't care to understand the magnitude of the problem.

I can go on but I think enough is enough. Just being Medicare is a problem. But medicaid on the other hand is a REAL problem. If you are on that, you don't get to enjoy certain things that everyone else does. And they pay even less.

 

Can't pass a sleep test? Excellent chance that he has parasites. Extremely common.