Anyone managed to get a prescription online? Has previous diagnosis. Desperate!

Edit/Update: thank you for all the help and suggestions! You guys are one of the best online community I have ever seen! I have a few options to try. Will report back here if any of those works out!
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I was previously diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and obtained a CPAP machine through my doctor & DME, 6-7 years ago. It started making strange noises recently. I am worried it might be breaking down. This was when I discovered I need a prescription to buy from online vendors like CPAP.com. My doctor told me nothing!

DME and doctor uncooperative. Wants me to wait 3-4 months for a new initial appointment then even more months doing more sleep studies! Took weeks of calling and complaining but finally managed to obtain my medical records, and there is NO prescription among them! Doctor says they order directly from the DME and refused to write me a standalone prescription!

Desperate enough to want to try https://www.sleepmedrx.com/partners/cpap or https://lofta.com/products/rxexpress. Has anyone actually been able to get a prescription through these?

Dentists and nurse practitioners can write CPAP prescriptions, in case that helps. (Your doctor is being a total pill. What a shame.)

It doesn't have to be a RX from a sleep doctor. Your PCP can write the RX if he/she is willing.

As for those online places that will get you the RX....I haven't heard of the first one you mentioned but I have heard a few members here who have mentioned Lofta.

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 20, 2022 7:57 pm

Dentists and nurse practitioners can write CPAP prescriptions, in case that helps. (Your doctor is being a total pill. What a shame.)

came to see this, left satisfied.

I did the Lofta home sleep study, it took about a week of turnaround. Fill out a form, then a brief visit with a doctor over video chat, then they mailed the device. I slept a night with it and paired it with my phone to send the data. After that I got a detailed report and they had a "sleep champion" call and explain the results to me -- I thought that would be a sales call but it was actually helpful. Also a real prescription that I used to order some things from cpap.com. No obligation to buy from Lofta.

Be careful if you do end up having a home sleep study from anyone.
Don't use your current machine for 4 or 5 nights prior to the sleep study just in case there is some hold over effect from using the cpap. May or may not happen but you don't want to risk going through a sleep study and have it come up and say you don't have OSA just because you used the machine right up to the sleep study and there was a bit of a hold over effect.

Run all this by your doctor though. This hold over effect thing is pretty controversial.

figby wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 20, 2022 9:14 pm

I did the Lofta home sleep study, it took about a week of turnaround. Fill out a form, then a brief visit with a doctor over video chat, then they mailed the device. I slept a night with it and paired it with my phone to send the data. After that I got a detailed report and they had a "sleep champion" call and explain the results to me -- I thought that would be a sales call but it was actually helpful. Also a real prescription that I used to order some things from cpap.com. No obligation to buy from Lofta.

Cannot thank you enough for sharing your experience! If this is reddit I'll upvote you and give you an award! I am definitely going to give them a try! Thank you!

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:02 pm

Be careful if you do end up having a home sleep study from anyone.
Don't use your current machine for 4 or 5 nights prior to the sleep study just in case there is some hold over effect from using the cpap. May or may not happen but you don't want to risk going through a sleep study and have it come up and say you don't have OSA just because you used the machine right up to the sleep study and there was a bit of a hold over effect.

Thank you for the advice! This is a bit tough for me because I find it hard to do my job while sleepy, but maybe I can try to schedule the sleep study during the weekend when I can skip using my CPAP on say Fri and Sat night.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 20, 2022 8:02 pm

It doesn't have to be a RX from a sleep doctor. Your PCP can write the RX if he/she is willing.

As for those online places that will get you the RX....I haven't heard of the first one you mentioned but I have heard a few members here who have mentioned Lofta.

This is GREAT info. I'm going to ask my PCP is they are willing to write the RX. Thank you so much!

The first one is actually partnered with CPAP.com and the one they sent me to from their website. If I am not wrong, CPAP.com hosts this forum as well?

sarahcovenant wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:17 pm

The first one is actually partnered with CPAP.com and the one they sent me to from their website. If I am not wrong, CPAP.com hosts this forum as well?

I seem to vaguely remember that cpap.com partnered with someone to get home studies and RX for people.
I just didn't remember the name since I obviously had no need. I can promise to try to remember for the next person who asks about them in 3 months but we both know I will forget the name. I am sure they would be fine to work with as well.
And yes...cpap.com does pay the bills for us to have this forum.

While your medical records may not include the actual RX....does it include the sleep report where the diagnosis was made?
If so that may be all you need to get a RX. Again...I don't remember which place...but there was one place that I saw that would review the sleep report records and possibly write the RX based on records and no need for another sleep study.
Might have been easybreathe.com....but I can't swear to it.
If enough documentation is in the records...and for a fee...they will write the RX and no need for a repeat sleep study.
I will think on it a bit and see if I can remember for sure who it was.
I don't know if cpap.com sleep study people will do that or not but you could check it out.
It all depends on what is included in your medical records and in what detail.

https://www.healthsqyre.com/

did offer online Rx for ~$90 after reviewing sleep report.

But the website is currently down.

SleepMed Rx partners with our host at cpap.com to do a home sleep study for $175 and (if needed) provide an Rx for a CPAP machine. https://www.sleepmedrx.com/partners/cpap

I can't vouch for it as I've never used it, but it seems like the reason cpap.com partners with them is to sell machines. So it should work to get a replacement, and then you'd also have an RX which might work for a future insurance covered replacement.

There are alternative ways to get a machine--buying off Craig's list is one, and one of our members often finds good deals for that.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:29 pm

I seem to vaguely remember that cpap.com partnered with someone to get home studies and RX for people.
I just didn't remember the name since I obviously had no need. I can promise to try to remember for the next person who asks about them in 3 months but we both know I will forget the name. I am sure they would be fine to work with as well.
And yes...cpap.com does pay the bills for us to have this forum.

While your medical records may not include the actual RX....does it include the sleep report where the diagnosis was made?
If so that may be all you need to get a RX. Again...I don't remember which place...but there was one place that I saw that would review the sleep report records and possibly write the RX based on records and no need for another sleep study.
Might have been easybreathe.com....but I can't swear to it.
If enough documentation is in the records...and for a fee...they will write the RX and no need for a repeat sleep study.
I will think on it a bit and see if I can remember for sure who it was.
I don't know if cpap.com sleep study people will do that or not but you could check it out.
It all depends on what is included in your medical records and in what detail.

Yes, I have all the previous sleep study reports. Thank goodness they're at least willing to give me those. Thank you for the suggestions. I will be checking out the route of getting an Rx based on my sleep study reports.

GrumpyHere wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 21, 2022 6:21 am

https://www.healthsqyre.com/

did offer online Rx for ~$90 after reviewing sleep report.

But the website is currently down.

Thanks for the valuable data point! Really appreciate it! No worries about the website being down. Just good to know people can actually get an Rx online!

Janknitz wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 21, 2022 1:05 pm

SleepMed Rx partners with our host at cpap.com to do a home sleep study for $175 and (if needed) provide an Rx for a CPAP machine. https://www.sleepmedrx.com/partners/cpap

I can't vouch for it as I've never used it, but it seems like the reason cpap.com partners with them is to sell machines. So it should work to get a replacement, and then you'd also have an RX which might work for a future insurance covered replacement.

There are alternative ways to get a machine--buying off Craig's list is one, and one of our members often finds good deals for that.

Thanks for the suggestions! https://www.sleepmedrx.com/partners/cpap will be one of the options I am going to try.