Sleep Apnea & the dreaded company physicals

Absolutely! They wanted $4400 to do the study through my doctor, me paying $400 or so. Went to the VA for free, got the RX and went through my wife's insurance for a $800 machine. Total cost.was two months rental of $19/mo. The insurance company wouldn't pay for the machine until I used it for two months.

 

Yes, they would have to take the letter from your doctor.

 

But I would have that doctor write a new letter if I changed jobs if I were you.

Incidently, I sleep much better with the CPAP machine. And even when I take just a short rest for an hour or so, it gives me more energy. It did take me about five months to get completely comfortable with it though at first.

 

I have not driven since jan of 2013. I have been giving serious thought to returning to the road of late. I asked my provider at the VA for a sleep study and her reply was are you getting restful sleep. I said yes but because my father had sleep apnea I was hoping to get a sleep study. I am currently waiting to see if her consult will go through and get a sleep study scheduled. If I can get a few other medical issues took care of I may see about that card and return to driving.

 

While that all may be true, the FMCSA has zero control over the examining person making a judgement call and asking for supporting information or additional testing to ensure that there is enough information to make a judgement call.

An "MEDICAL OPINION LETTER" is not always accepted because the examiner can decide to ignore that and any other supporting documents by your doctor. There is no law, no regulation to force them to accept anything.

The normal cycle is 2 years, not 4, not 5, but just 2 years for a script. Many times if the case is severe, a one year cycle is used. This is because the insurance companies have to follow their agreed guidelines and mandates by the state so many will require 2 year testing and adjustment to maintain the script.

Many get lucky, they have a doc who just doesn't give a crap while they end up with a DOT examiner who just wants to keep their numbers up so they don't see what happens behind the scenes.

 

I currently work for USA and no sleep studies are required there and there are lots of large people there, like most trucking companies. I had gotten my Med card at school last year and they accepted it and this year when I renewed, I went to my own place locally for a card and it wasn't an issue.

 

that is just misinformation

 

plenty of companies accept your own medical card
the big hint is no touch freight

 

The new cpap machines can transmit the usage info via wireless WiFi or whatever to the medical place that sells the machine, so they already have the info for the insurance and DOT requirements on usage.