DME Recommendations

[SakimaStorm]

Hello friends,

My neighbor and her husband had to change their insurance company to United Healthcare on Jan 1. They have been using the same (awesome) DME as me (Northstar) but was just told by UHC that they have to use one of these:

AdaptHealth
Apria
Lincare
PHM Logistics
Rotech

I know Apria has a reputation for dismal support and customer service. Of the remaining, any that you would recommend (or not recommend) based on your experience. She and her husband would greatly appreciate the information/feedback.

thanks.

[SleepGeek]

afaik - most places don't like UHC - so gonna be a rough year. Don't know if they have another choice next year but... sorry.

[Julie]

And I can tell you that Lincare is not at all popular either.

[booksfan]

Can they check with AeroFlow Sleep (online) to see if they are in-network?

[SakimaStorm]

Thank you for the responses. The ones I listed are the only ones that their new insurance told them they use.

[kbh209]

I will say this, I had Lincare as my DME when I was first on my CPAP journey. I had a relatively positive experience, at the time the local office was in a nearby city (15 minutes away) and they worked well with me. Only reason I switched DMEs is because after I moved is because I switched to a different provider.

[SakimaStorm]

Thank you kbh209

[Janknitz]

It's hit or miss with any of those. Apria is called Crapria for a reason. They have centralized billing that is wrong most of the time, and their centralized customer service stinks. You may get lucky with a local office.

Lincare also has a reputation as "Lin Don't Care", but again, a local office might be better where you are located. The others aren't well known by their bad reputation, but I wouldn't take that to mean they are necessarily better or worse. If you give their general location, someone might know of one of those that seems to do a good job.

They should make sure they know the coverage provisions of their UH plan, and wish them luck.

[SakimaStorm]

Thank you Janknitz.

We, and they, are in the Pacific Northwest. Between Seattle and Bellingham, WA.

[chunkyfrog]

1) Ask your doctor to specify EXACTLY what you want on the prescription.
2) Do not give them a credit card number.
3) NEVER let them autoship.
It's not the end of the world--you just gotta watch whoever you use like a hawk.
And don't let them get away with anything.

[SakimaStorm]

Thank you everyone for the excellent advice and recommendations. I have passed the information to my friend/neighbor and she too is very grateful.