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How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

aphyr.com

11–20 of 273 posts

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#12
Reading this depressed me: I imagined the title being “How to get your GMail/XBox/PlayStation account back in only 666 days.”

I worry that, some day, tech companies will be under a regulating agency like insurance is today. If that happens, we’ll probably deserve it.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#13
Met someone coming from US to Australia to visit and was nicely surprised you can just go buy a CPAP, cheaply with no referral. Just like buying a dishwasher or something.

Makes me wonder if in the US a trip to mexico or canada or somewhere could make this easier.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#14

Ha, I know Carelon! It's their pharmacy division for specialty (read: expensive) medication. Not a clue as to why they'd be involved in a CPAP claim, but this story does ring far too close to home. I once spent months fighting United Healthcare to stop hounding me for a $2k bill that I categorically did not owe. Countless phone reps were unable to remove it from my account; I only solved the problem by making a big e…

Carelon also does preauthorizations for various expensive procedures and such. I’ve had the displeasure of having to try to coordinate between my insurance provider and PCP’s insurance coordinator for authorizing some expensive blood tests. Insurance wanted the PCP to use Carelon, Carelon automatically denied it, the appeals process was designed to be as frustrating and opaque as possible.

(Unlike the OP, I didn’t have the patience to spend two years navigating the kafkaesque nightmare they did. I finally gave up after a couple months of being stonewalled by all the parties who would refuse to talk to one another and me trying to be the middle man. I never did get the blood work done. So much for preventative medicine.)

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#15

It’s surprising to me that not only in my home country is the process of having a CPAP machine covered by insurance a long and complicated one. In my case, it took almost 12 months to receive my first CPAP machine, which then turned out to be refurbished. Initially, I had to visit a doctor, who had an available appointment in two months. He then referred me to a sleep laboratory (another two-month wait). After my sle…

After an initial round of bullshit with the local government insurance agency to get my CPAP including the multiple “two month wait for x”, then a 6 month wait to get the machine, and subsequently struggling to get it serviced, I bought my own for a few hundred EUR and been doing that for nearly 10 years now.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#18

You can now understand why the UK is holding on the its NHS with white knuckles despite the Conservative push to dissolve it by stealth.

Yes, Australia too. You can take my medicare system (NHS equiv) from my cold dead hands. It's the only way you're going to.

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#19

You can now understand why the UK is holding on the its NHS with white knuckles despite the Conservative push to dissolve it by stealth.

Though it’d probably take 666 days to see a sleep specialist and get your first CPAP machine… (which I suspect you’d agree is part of the stealth dissolution plan)

Re: How to Replace Your CPAP in Only 666 Days

#20

It’s surprising to me that not only in my home country is the process of having a CPAP machine covered by insurance a long and complicated one. In my case, it took almost 12 months to receive my first CPAP machine, which then turned out to be refurbished. Initially, I had to visit a doctor, who had an available appointment in two months. He then referred me to a sleep laboratory (another two-month wait). After my sle…

Sounds like you are in the US.
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