Sleep apnea question

My insurance paid for it, about $600, I think. I pay $1,200 per month now for my health insurance, so I expect some coverage for stuff.

I only buy a new mask when the dog chews it up, for about $100 out of my pocket. Twice now. Other than that I have no ongoing expense with it. The monitoring is free through the medical equipment provider I use.

My annual stress test costs me more than than the cpap machine. I have to have an annual cardiac waiver form completed each year to keep my cdl. I don’t medically need an annual stress test, but the state says I have to have one......so I don’t have any option for that test either.

So I feel fine about the sleep apnea treatment cost, but I dislike getting hosed for an unnecessary stress test every year.

 

My monitoring is free. I would not accept a machine that had a monitoring fee associated with.....that is ridiculous. Don’t buy a machine like.....you can get free monitoring.

 

Heavy, I have never paid a dime for monitoring....except once in TN. You can get free monitoring from any reputable durable medical equipment provider.

I did pay $20 in Tn once for a printout, but it was because I didn’t buy the machine from them.

 

Some folks have no alternative because the company their company uses and has now tied to their CDL requires daily monitoring for use.

I have seen more than one driver parked for not meeting a set usage. And parked for 7 days until they achieve the number and it is recorded by the monitoring company. I have even seen 3 month medical cards for habitual offenders to further remove options.

 

Thank you kindly Gentlemen.

I am a little more of a more behaved good boy now that some of you had something to say with my hubris towards CPAP.

When I sit and read TTR I see paul bunyans pulling up a pine tree to brush hair or have the Blue Ox scare up some dinner in the form of ElToro or something. However some here are doing major battle in the health care to do better where possible.

 

I had never heard of daily monitoring. For a dot physical, all that is required is a compliance usage report for the prior 90 days, or six months at most. I would never agree to daily monitoring.

If I have a few nights where I don’t meet the 4 hour useage requirement, it gets averaged in over the 90 days. All the dot requires is 70% compliance for my dot doctor to renew my 1 year medical card. So I can have 27 days in a 3 month period with inadequate useage and still be compliant.

Daily monitoring is a rip-off and totally unnecessary. And charging the driver for that monitoring would be unacceptable to me.

 

I have heard that some of these CPAP machines that drivers get through their trucking company are checked daily for compliance. I don't have a reliable source to confirm that, though.

My machine has a little modem with an antenna. It powers up when I turn it on or off, or adjust the humidity. I just call my provider, and they can fax the compliance report to whoever. But IIRC, my machine also only reports 7 day and 30 day averages.
In other words, they can't pinpoint a non-compliant DAY; it just reduces the compliance percentage for the week. And my company MRO only cared about the 30 day compliance score.

And since someone asked, I paid $500 out of pocket, $100 a month, for my CPAP, and my insurance picked up the rest. I used to get a free mask every six months, but I lost my health insurance. So when my mask broke recently, I shopped online for a replacement and found one for $78. I hope I have insurance before my machine craps out. It'll happen sooner or later: I'm on my third machine in 15 years....

 

They don't monitor drivers if they wear their presription eyewear at all times or that they take all of their medications at the proper times.But that's only because they don't have the lobbyists the apnea people have.

 

Did you want to quote my previous post about the proven facts that sleep apnea is a scam? Feel free to reply

 

This. I have to wear corrective lenses. I wear contacts. Can you imagine if I was required to wear a specific pair of glasses sold by a doctor that I was forced to see, with tracking capabilities in the glasses to see if I wore them while driving?

It's the same thing.