Apria or Lincare

[alancalan]

Have any of you found any differences between the two DMEs Apria or Lincare? I believe that Apria is going to get the Air Curve 11 sooner than Lincare. My ENT/Sleep medicine doctor automatically sent the prescription for the new machine to Apria because they like dealing with them and I'm not sure they feel the same way about the Lincare near me. The person in charge of my Lincare office, a really nice guy, says he doesn't know when they're coming in could be months but he really has no control over that even though he says they do a lot more business with ResMed than Apria does. My S9 is falling apart but it still works. I can't change any settings and I can't put the memory card back in because the button is gone and I asked ResMed to send me another one and they say you have to deal with your DME not us.

So April is supposed to contact me by Monday and I just wanted to know if there any corporate issues that make life harder with Apria then with Lincare. The same goes with supplies. Lincare seems very easy with feeling supply orders or we ordering supplies I don't know anything about Apria and how much they give you every 3 months for Medicare patients, but that has to be the same amongst the two of them I would imagine.

So thanks in advance and hopefully I get my new machine soon.

Alan

[SleepGeek]

Have any of you found any differences between the two DMEs Apria or Lincare?

I wouldn't do business with either of them.

I can't change any settings and I can't put the memory card back in because the button is gone

Search youtube for clinical menu.

for Medicare patients,

For Medicare patients the supplies are the same.
I would use either Verus health or Aeroflow Medical supplies. Search this forum or google for links.

btw - I would go with the Aircurve 10 Auto not the 11. You'll be happier.

[alancalan]

No the air curve 11 is a BiPAP. I never use it CPAP.

As far as sittings, there is a button/dial on top on the right hand side that you need for making the adjustments and to go up and down the menu. I don't have it anymore it fell off and I rode to ResMed on Twitter and they said there's nothing they can do I have to deal with the DME and the DME that Lincare said they have no parts for the S9 and they didn't seem to want to go out of their way to get that
button so if Apria can get me the air curve 11 Bipap/Vpap, which I have been waiting for for 10 years, I'm going to go with Apria unless I see something here telling me to stay away. I will check out those recommendations that you made though.

My ENT/Sleep Med Doc sent the order to Apria and I can't do anything without them. If I wanted them to resend it to lincare they would have but the guy at lincare says he doesn't know when he's going to get the air curb 11 it might be months.

And wouldn'r you know it he/they ordered the CPAP. When I told the guy at Apria I've been using a BiPAP since 2003 when I got a Sullivan BiPAP, and never used a CPAP in my life. How do you trust doctors that screw up like that? Is it so difficult to look what kind of machine I had before and sometimes you wonder maybe they don't have the difference. I have gotten more help from this website than anything from the doctors. The doctors are only a necessary evil you can stay right to scripts even though they don't get them right.

I don't even know what settings they gave Apria which have to be changed for a bipop anyway but I have settings that I think I helped develop on here and when I went to my pulmonologist years ago I gave him what setting I came up with if he seems fine with that. I think this is what I need. And these machines are self titrating anyway so you can't go too far off. I would have gone back to the pulmonologist but he doesn't take my insurance and I don't feel like paying extra money for nothing.

What's interesting was that I did run off the final report from Oscar and it showed that when I had cervical back pain and I started sleeping in the recliner I had my Apnea events jumped from .5 to 1.5 in bed to something closer to five and six when I was in the recliner. Once I was able to sleep in bed again it went back down to under one. I think the leak issue was worth sitting in the recliner.

[Respirator99]

No the air curve 11 is a BiPAP. I never use it CPAP.

So is the AirCurve 10. The 10 is a solidly built, highly reliable product that has been around for years. The 11 is a cosmetic upgrade and a functional downgrade (ie smaller / cheaper motor & fan), but the bilevel models have only been on the market for a few weeks. If it was my money I'd get the 10.

[alancalan]

Almost 10 years and only cosmetic? How do you know that the fan and the motor is less powerful?

[Janknitz]

There's a reason we call them Crapria and Lin Don't Care, but it sounds like you have a "guy" at Lincare who actually talks to you and is helpful. That's worth something.

You can try Crapria and see how it goes. You can always go back to your guy at Lincare for supplies if you are unhappy with the experience with Crapria. Watch the billing carefully with Crapria, they tend to get it wrong 100% of the time. And make certain they gave you the machine you ordered, not some bait and switch.

Good luck!

[onward60]

FWIW, the gals at my local Apria office are very helpful. The hold times aren't too bad, and they call you back in a reasonable amount of time if you have questions for the respiratory therapist. Couldn't get past the uber-long holds at Lincare, so gave up on them.

[Respirator99]

Almost 10 years and only cosmetic? How do you know that the fan and the motor is less powerful?

This is not a technology that moves very fast. All the algorithms are pretty well understood and have been for a few years. In terms of the motor in the AS11 series, various people have pulled them apart and reported on their findings. The motor in the AS11 the same as that in the Resmed Mini. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bWBILnuJlw&t=1s

[zonker]

The motor in the AS11 the same as that in the Resmed Mini. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bWBILnuJlw&t=1s

I did not know that! thanks for sharing.

[bwexler]

As to the choice between Lin Don't Care and Crapria, I have used both. I believe one is worse than the other. It is difficult to determine which is worse. I believe the one that is worse is the one you are using at the moment. I have also used Super Care Health. They seem to be slightly less bad than the other two.
Never ever allow either of them to discover your credit card info. The only way I will pay either of them, is to go on line to my bank and have a check issued and mailed to them. It is easy and they never have access to my checking account info either.

As to Aircurve 10 vs Aircurve 11, first you have to define which of several models you want. I have been dealing with mixed apneas for at least 10 years, so I use the Aircurve 10 ASV. I highly recommend you determine exactly which machine you really want/need. I too was waiting for the Aircurve 11 ASV to be available. I found a deal on a used Aircurve 10 ASV about 6 months ago and bought it. Christmas eve my wife got her first machine. I have been hounding er for years and she finally decided to get tested to prove I was wrong about her having sleep apnea. She got an Airsense 11 Autoset. So now I can compare the 10 vs 11. They each have some pros and cons. I like the on screen display better on the 11. The water chamber on the 10 is easier to work with. The 11 is noisier. the 10 auto on auto off feature seems to work better. At this point I don't see a deal maker or deal breaker on either one except possible availability and price issues.

[alancalan]

Hi Bwexler

As to Aircurve 10 vs Aircurve 11, first you have to define which of several models you want. I have been dealing with mixed apneas for at least 10 years, so I use the Aircurve 10 ASV. I highly recommend you determine exactly which machine you really want/need. I too was waiting for the Aircurve 11 ASV to be available. I found a deal on a used Aircurve 10 ASV about 6 months ago and bought it. Christmas eve my wife got her first machine. I have been hounding er for years and she finally decided to get tested to prove I was wrong about her having sleep apnea. She got an Airsense 11 Autoset. So now I can compare the 10 vs 11. They each have some pros and cons. I like the on screen display better on the 11. The water chamber on the 10 is easier to work with. The 11 is noisier. the 10 auto on auto off feature seems to work better. At this point I don't see a deal maker or deal breaker on either one except possible availability and price issues.

You're talking about different models of the air curve 11 but I thought I saw some place that they're all in the same machine and they were different modes that you have to set along with different algorithms unless the algorithms are different modes.

I kind of liked Lincare because they're in Delray and not 40 minutes away like Palm Beach Gardens is. I like the people there, especially the guy who runs the Delay office, Patrick. However he has no idea when he's going to be getting the air curve 11s in and I really don't want to wait anymore, 10 years is enough. Patrick said it could take months. I don't know why Apria has them unless Apria thinks they have them but they're really the Air Sense 11s.
I think they may be calling them air 11s now.

If that's the case I would just wait for Lincare. Yes they should have gotten me the right side button for the S9 vpap in the Delray office of Lincare but I didn't push it because things like that can cost hundreds of dollars even though it's a plastic button. I was afraid that the Air Curve 11 would come in and Medicare would say you just got yours fixed you have to wait. So I dropped it and tried to get it from ResMed but that's completely useless.

As far as the motor, I watched one of the videos that somebody recommended and that guy said that the reason they're using that smaller motor is because they had a lot of luck with it and no failures or very few failures and that's probably a good thing even if it's the same motor for the mini. I might regret this 3 years down the road but who knows. I also wonder if the amount of pressure you use would have an effect on how fast the motor goes?

Dlcpa

[bwexler]

I don't actually know the physical differences between the different models of the Aircurve 10s, but I am aware of the price differences.
The Aircurve 10 BiLevels are well under $2,000.
The Aircurve 10 ASV are in the mid $4,000 range. Makes me wonder if there are some physical differences.
I know a typical end user can't change an entry level machine to an ASV and a DME either can't of won't.
Just like AMD CPUs have the series 3 series 5 series 7 and series 9. They all look the same except for the printed labeling on the chip. But inside there are significant differences between them, More cores more cache memory etc.

As far as availability of the AC 11, I just looked in my Chrystal ball and all I saw was smoke.

[alancalan]

Edited

Yes I think you're right it doesn't switch to an ASV or whatever. What it does do is change from a CPAP, to an S, I forgot what the S means, to a vpap.

Here is the link to the review of the air curve 10 versus the air curve of 11. See the video below.


https://cpapmyway.com/blog/aircurve-11- ... ngs-adjust

[alancalan]

This is what happens when you don't proofread. Sorry about that last message.

[alancalan]

I'm still waiting for my air curve 11. Apria is doing something with my information. I'm on Medicare and I have pretty good secondary insurance but I think Medicare pays for the whole thing anyway.

Something tells me they don't have the air curve 11 in stock even though they thought they did. I don't think we have the swiftest people to work with. The doctor's office initially ordered the air sense 11. After I told them I only want an air curve 11 and that I need to bipap I have been using one since 2003. I wonder who the genius was who went over those records and sent the request to Apria after I said I wanted to go to Lincare.

I just hope I don't have to do any of those crappy home sleep studies. If I'm doing well with a BiPAP and doing .5 to 1.5 Apnea events per hour, what would a home sleep study tell anybody about me having a problem and possibly need a different machine like an ASV and I don't even know what that is. If they said I had to do a full sleep study, that's a different story and that's not anything I want but if necessary I would. Doing that home sleep study, with all the information Oscar provides, is useless I think. I completely ignored what analysis of that home sleep study said I needed.

In a video I sent out, the guy who did the settings for the air curve 11 had it set for 25 and 4, that's a big jump. I think mine set for 15 and maybe 7 I think that can go down to 5 or 4 Is there any reason to set such a wide range? I think I've hit 14 I don't think I ever went over 15 from looking at the Oscar results, which I included below. I trust the people here more than I do the medical people.