Cheap Sleep Study

I have a BUNCH of questions..

1) Is that a picture of the sleep test equipment or the CPAP machine?

That looks like a TYPE IV testing device. A simple screening device designed to check are you a good candidate for being sent to a sleep lab.

If a TYPE IV device says YES you do have sleep apnea and you start treatment on an auto-titrating CPAP (CPAP automatically adjusts pressure) where the treating sleep doc is careful to review and adjust the range of pressures the APAP is using that's GOOD.

If a sleep doc says you DO NOT have sleep apnea solely on the basis of a TYPE IV testing device there are a whole lot of issues where you probably pissed away $ 250.00 for nothing. 

Medical Examiners are not stupid . There are so many ways to "cheat" a TYPE IV device that a negative sleep study ( study said NO sleep apnea) any good medical examiner will just say... go get a in-lab study to confirm this.

I also would REALLY question the ethics of a board certified sleep doc signing off on a negative sleep study for a truck driver with a TYPE IV device. Then again most DOT medical examiners don't know much about sleep medicine.

2) Did you get a CPAP machine? Did they tell you the range of pressures your machine is set for? Did they ask you anything about how you will plug the CPAP in... ie size and type of invertor? When will they follow up with you to check CPAP downloads and adjust pressure?

There are legitimate home sleep studies being done for truck drivers using TYPE III (more sophisticated tests) that give the sleep doc enough information to make a real diagnosis. You can get an at home sleep study for $ 299-399. This makes a LOT more sense than spending upwards of $ 1,200 for an in-lab study (cheapest price I have heard about.. was billing to a large trucking company getting lots of studies....some stories drivers have had to pay $ 2,000 and up for an in-lab sleep study.)

CPAP machine prices from DME's and insurance get real complicated as many DME's also factor in the follow-up data downloads into the CPAP price. Also many DME's will bill insurance much more than the CPAP costs because they know insurance will only pay them half of what they bill. If a DME sells direct to a driver they need to charge the higher price they bill insurance by federal law. 

If you buy direct you need to use a company that does not handle insurance and can set prices more realistically on actual costs not what insurance will or won't pay.

This sleep apnea stuff is new to both the medical folks and trucking. Those of us who have been on a CPAP for years have been dealing with this stuff for a while. I went on CPAP in 2002 and have had to learn more than I wanted to about all this stuff. 

It pisses me off when I hear about some new shyster coming in and telling drivers they can get a sleep study for $ 250.00. Sorry folks...... if the price is too good to be true.. it probably is... you get what you pay for.