Wearing a sleep apnea mask?

[MNBobcat]

The first night I went and slept while being monitored. They billed Medicare $7623.75 for that night and Medicare approved $834.18. Then a week later I went back and tried sleeping with a CPAP device and that time they billed Medicare $8046.75 and Medicare approved $833.11. Usually all doctors and hospitals bill Medicare for 2 to 3 times what Medicare will approve, but 9 or 10 times seems a little excessive. But of course they accept what Medicare approves.

That sounds like the place doing the sleep study is pulling some stuff. When I had my study they had me sleep for awhile and then they woke me up and put the cpap on. Then I slept again and they adjusted (remotely) the cpap pressure until it was right. The whole thing was done in one night.

 

[PhysAssist]

That sounds like the place doing the sleep study is pulling some stuff. When I had my study they had me sleep for awhile and then they woke me up and put the cpap on. Then I slept again and they adjusted (remotely) the cpap pressure until it was right. The whole thing was done in one night.

MNB,
It sounds like your experience was [to my knowledge] the exception, at least around here, because [as best I can recall] everyone I have seen [professionally] or talked to [personally] has had at least a 2 night deal, so that the sleep MD can review the data and develop a treatment plan, meet with you to talk about it, and then have a sleep trial to see 1) if C-Pap helps you not have apneic episodes, and 2) at what level it does, if any.

I wanted to see the data analysis before deciding to go along with C-Pap because 1) I did not have any symptoms I could attribute to sleep apnea [no daytime fatigue or narcolepsy, no HBP, no elevated BG, etc.] and 2) I wanted to know what they found re: my restless legs- which I knew I had, my wife testified I had [as she did apneic episodes], and I wanted relief from.

The downside was that they did find both, but wanted to treat and reassess the [moderate] apnea first and wait to treat the leg [actually whole body] [severe] symptoms to see if they improved with better sleep.

Although the NPLMD [Nocturnal Periodic Limb Movement Disorder- how's that for a mouthful] did not improve when I did the sleep trial with the C-Pap on, they thought it might over time.

To be fair, at the time I was also getting up 2 or 3 times each night to urinate, and although that did not improve on my overnight with the C-Pap either, now that I'm using it regularly, I rarely ever get up at all, [unless i have a beer too close to bedtime].

My sleep doc told me that might get better [I knew it wasn't my prostate, but didn't know it could be apnea-related], and I am happy it has.

My NPLMD [I'm really thinking about alphabetizing that acronym] has not apparently improved based on my AM body aches and my wife's reports, so I need to go back and talk to them about that too...

As for the nocturia [night time peeing- not in bed ;-0 ] the reason the sleep doctor gave for that made some sense to me, and it also helps account for some of the other negative things that untreated sleep apnea can cause.

Apparently the way our bodies arouse us to restart breathing is to circulate some adrenaline, which also increases the blood pressure and pulse rate, making more blood circulate through the kidneys = more urine sooner than normally.

With the C-Pap preventing the apnea so it is no longer causing the need for arousals, the blood flow, blood pressure, and pulse slow back down to normal, so less urine is made, and less arousals specifically for emptying the bladder are needed.

YMMV.

 

[MNBobcat]

PhysAssist,

Maybe its a regional thing. I'll count myself lucky. Sure seems like at $15k for a sleep study of 2 nights that the insurance companies are being abused.

I can say that with my c-pap it hasn't affected how many times I get aroused in bed. LOL

 

[PhysAssist]

PhysAssist,

Maybe its a regional thing. I'll count myself lucky. Sure seems like at $15k for a sleep study of 2 nights that the insurance companies are being abused.

I can say that with my c-pap it hasn't affected how many times I get aroused in bed. LOL

or out of bed......?

TOO FUNNY!!

I have to admit that given my $50 co-payment, I dint look to see what the total bill was, but I'll bet it was padded here too, although our insurer rides pretty close herd on them here and I do get to see that.

Thomas

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

No, no gas or anything like that. My machine has a water reservoir and heater that must put humidity into the stream/flow of air that I breathe. Who knows why but it works for me............God bless..........Dennis

here is one for ya. First night with cpap I left Cpap on the floor. Dog sleeps on floor with *** right near machine. Dog farts cpap sucks air in and blows it down my troat and I almost choke to death with the smell. I woke up choking. Wife thought something terrible went wrong. She was scared When she found out what happen she could not get back to sleep because she was laughing so hard.

 

[MNBobcat]

here is one for ya. First night with cpap I left Cpap on the floor. Dog sleeps on floor with *** right near machine. Dog farts cpap sucks air in and blows it down my troat and I almost choke to death with the smell. I woke up choking. Wife thought something terrible went wrong. She was scared When she found out what happen she could not get back to sleep because she was laughing so hard.

ROFL! Reminds me of the movie Rocket Man where the one guys hooks the oxygen outlet of his space suit to the other guy's oxygen input and when he farts you see this huqe bulge in the tube moving towards the poor guy on the receiving end. NASA detects a huge spike in methane and it takes a few moments for them to realize what happened. They're almost spitting out their coffee laughing.


One thing that really torqued me off on the cpap machine is they use a code for the insurance claim. The sleep lab gets paid the same amount of money, based on that code, if they provided you a $1,000 machine or a $5,000 machine. So guess what they provide? Yep...the cheapest machine they can and they pocket the rest. So my machine doesn't have any electronics for monitoring how effective the machine is. When I complained to the lab that chose the machine they just smarted off to me. Needless to say, I don't do business with them any more.

 

[Bird]

One thing that really torqued me off on the cpap machine is they use a code for the insurance claim. The sleep lab gets paid the same amount of money, based on that code, if they provided you a $1,000 machine or a $5,000 machine. So guess what they provide? Yep...the cheapest machine they can and they pocket the rest. So my machine doesn't have any electronics for monitoring how effective the machine is. When I complained to the lab that chose the machine they just smarted off to me. Needless to say, I don't do business with them any more.

The sleep lab (in a hospital) did the sleep study and sent the report to my doctor. The order for a particular type of machine was signed by my doctor and was sent to a medical supply house in the area (Rhema Medical Supply) and they then called me for an appointment to come get the machine. I wondered why an appointment was necessary, but found it included a fair amount of training time, and selecting the mask I liked best. And of course the machine records usage data.

 

[doxford jim]

When I had my apnea diagnosed it cost me nothing. I went to the local hospital and was given a data recording device to take home and use. It was then returned to the hospital and the data downloaded and the resulting diagnosis was sent to my doctor - severe apnea. I was given a copy of the letter sent to my doctor and handed this letter to a company selling CPAP machines. I did a one month trial with them and returned their machine. I did not buy from them as they wanted $3500 in total, for the machine, hoses mask etc. - and it was an older model machine too.
I shopped around on the internet and found a company in Vancouver BC, that would sell me a complete set including carrying case for $1500 - a brand new product offered at a promotional price. Needless to say I went with $1500 CPAP machine (Resmed S9 with humidifier) and haven't looked back.
Just thought it might be of interest to others.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

That sounds like the place doing the sleep study is pulling some stuff. When I had my study they had me sleep for awhile and then they woke me up and put the cpap on. Then I slept again and they adjusted (remotely) the cpap pressure until it was right. The whole thing was done in one night.

When I went in for the sleep study, I was told that if it was severe, she would wake me up about halfway through the night, and put a mask on me. She didn't wake me up until morning and told me it was not severe enough to wake me, and that I would have to come back for another night to get the mask on and adjusted. I'm scheduled for December 1st.

 

[Bird]

When I went in for the sleep study, I was told that if it was severe, she would wake me up about halfway through the night, and put a mask on me. She didn't wake me up until morning and told me it was not severe enough to wake me, and that I would have to come back for another night to get the mask on and adjusted. I'm scheduled for December 1st.

Maybe that's the reason I went 2 different nights? The guy didn't say anything like that, but when he woke me the next morning, he said I had "moderate to severe" apnea, whatever that means.