Hi,

Another quick question for you. I have Apria as my provider for masks, but it seems that whichever one they want to give me is the one I should go with.
Shouldn't they give me four or five masks to try so I can decide for myself? Once before, I asked to "try" the total face mask to see if it might work for me. When it came in they gave me the mask and billed my insurance for it. Now I'm stuck with a mask that doesn't work for my face structure. Are there places that take trades?

What I really would like to do is give Apria a list of four or five maks that they can get in and have me try out. This seems like it should be the way to things.

    Quite a few people who post on this forum have Apria. What should happen is you should be given a few different masks to try. it is almost impossible to find the correct one in the whole 10 minutes that your DME gives you. It seems that 99% of the DMEs try to do the least amount of work possible-they are there to provide a service to us-without us-they wouldn't have jobs!!!!!!!!


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EVERY SILVER LINING HAS A TOUCH OF GREY
-Grateful Dead

BobbyV wrote:

Hi,

Another quick question for you. I have Apria as my provider for masks, but it seems that whichever one they want to give me is the one I should go with.
Shouldn't they give me four or five masks to try so I can decide for myself? Once before, I asked to "try" the total face mask to see if it might work for me. When it came in they gave me the mask and billed my insurance for it. Now I'm stuck with a mask that doesn't work for my face structure. Are there places that take trades?

What I really would like to do is give Apria a list of four or five maks that they can get in and have me try out. This seems like it should be the way to things.

Hi BobbyV,

Thankfully I don't have the problems you are experiencing.

Someone in Apria is jumping the gun. You are the customer and you must decide on the most suitable mask for you. If Apria are not delivering you should report the matter to your insurers. Ultimately you are the consumer, your insurers are the paymasters and Apria are the providers. I really believe that you should formally complain to your insurers and demand that they refuse payment to Apria.

On occassion (on this side of the pond) I have gone head to head with a DME (on behalf of a sufferer) and told them that they were denying the patient their basic human right to choice. the threat of negative publicity got them to change their stance. While I appreciate that the companies involved on your side of the pond are bigger.......the ground rules are the same.

We have got to stand up for ourselves.

Maybe the ASAA might take up the cudgel ?????

Daniel.


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The untreated Sleep Apnoea sufferer died quietly in his sleep.......
Unlike his three passengers who died screaming !!!!!!

(Anon)