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Introduction and Report on Apria Experience
Hi,
I'm Sharon Michalove and I joined the forum a few days ago. Mike asked me to write about my experience with getting my CPAP machine.
I had a sleep study in February and saw a sleep doctor soon afterwards. While my sleep apea is relatively mild, I have a very large drop in my oxygen level during REM sleep, which meant I ended up with a split sleep study rather than a purely diagnostic one. My doctor prescribed a CPAP machine with heat and humidity and the sleep lab recommended a setting of 13 with a C-Flex of 3.
I used Apria as my provided since my HMO uses them and because they are close to my house and my husband had had a good experience with them. They gave me a Respironics M Series and I had a 45 minute appointment with a respiratory specialist who showed me how to use the machine and made me practice with both the machine and the mask after making sure the mask fit. She called me every week to make sure I was using the machine and not having any problems.
After two weeks I had sores on the bridge of my nose and under my nose so I called and they had me come in that day to be fitted for a new mask. I am now using an Opus mask with nasal pillows that works much better. However, when I went for a followup with my doctor I did tell him that I still had problems with waking up 5 to 6 times during the night and still being tired in the morning. After looking at my sleep results again, he decided having a pressure of 13 all night was probably too much and that I would be better off with a machine that automatically judged how much oxygen I actually needed.
Today I went in for my new machine. The therapist apologized for not having a comparable M series machine. So now I have been upgraded to a S8 series machine. Again, I had instructions on how to use the machine, clean it, etc. Apria had worked with both the doctor's office and my HMO to get all the paperwork taken care of. So I didn't have to do anything except go in for the appointment.
The therapist did tell me that not all branches of Apria offer the same level of service. In fact, she said that some of her relatives in a large city north of here have not had the same level of service that her branch is expected to provide. All I can say is that I am glad that I live in Champaign-Urbana. I have had nothing but good experiences with Apria here and I know that if I have any issues with my equipment I can expect really good service very quickly.
I don't know that this is helpful information for anyone, but I can say that if you aren't getting good service from Apria, you might cite Champaign-Urbana as an example of where they do things right and ask why you can't get service like that where you are.
I'm Sharon Michalove and I joined the forum a few days ago. Mike asked me to write about my experience with getting my CPAP machine.
I had a sleep study in February and saw a sleep doctor soon afterwards. While my sleep apea is relatively mild, I have a very large drop in my oxygen level during REM sleep, which meant I ended up with a split sleep study rather than a purely diagnostic one. My doctor prescribed a CPAP machine with heat and humidity and the sleep lab recommended a setting of 13 with a C-Flex of 3.
I used Apria as my provided since my HMO uses them and because they are close to my house and my husband had had a good experience with them. They gave me a Respironics M Series and I had a 45 minute appointment with a respiratory specialist who showed me how to use the machine and made me practice with both the machine and the mask after making sure the mask fit. She called me every week to make sure I was using the machine and not having any problems.
After two weeks I had sores on the bridge of my nose and under my nose so I called and they had me come in that day to be fitted for a new mask. I am now using an Opus mask with nasal pillows that works much better. However, when I went for a followup with my doctor I did tell him that I still had problems with waking up 5 to 6 times during the night and still being tired in the morning. After looking at my sleep results again, he decided having a pressure of 13 all night was probably too much and that I would be better off with a machine that automatically judged how much oxygen I actually needed.
Today I went in for my new machine. The therapist apologized for not having a comparable M series machine. So now I have been upgraded to a S8 series machine. Again, I had instructions on how to use the machine, clean it, etc. Apria had worked with both the doctor's office and my HMO to get all the paperwork taken care of. So I didn't have to do anything except go in for the appointment.
The therapist did tell me that not all branches of Apria offer the same level of service. In fact, she said that some of her relatives in a large city north of here have not had the same level of service that her branch is expected to provide. All I can say is that I am glad that I live in Champaign-Urbana. I have had nothing but good experiences with Apria here and I know that if I have any issues with my equipment I can expect really good service very quickly.
I don't know that this is helpful information for anyone, but I can say that if you aren't getting good service from Apria, you might cite Champaign-Urbana as an example of where they do things right and ask why you can't get service like that where you are.
Views: 173
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike on
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most everybody i've heard from who uses Apria, including myself, has not has as good an experience with Apria, which is one of the things that makes this post so interesting. why did Apria drop ship me the cheapest blower they had, when sounds like you got a pretty darn good one? usually, we patients have to be advocates for ourselves and insist on the latest, most data-capable machines. did you have to do any advocacy, or did they just give you decent machines right off the bat?
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Permalink Reply by Judy on
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Apria has such a black eye for service that is good to hear of the good offices. Thank you for posting about your GOOD experience w/Apria Champaign-Urbana (Illinois).
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Permalink Reply by Sharon Michalove on
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When I went in the first time, I was immediately given the M-series model, which was evidently what C-U Sleep, the sleep test people recommended. This time, since they didn't have the M-series, I got the S8 series. The only thing I had to ask this time was whether the machine had C-Flex. It has a similar function, which hadn't been set since the doctor didn't ask for it (C-U Sleep had asked for it the first time). Amy, the technician, set it up as soon as I asked about it. So I didn't really have to be an advocate at all. As I said, evidently I just live in a good place because I didn't know anything when I went in to Apria after I had had the sleep test and the meeting with the sleep specialist.
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Permalink Reply by sleepycarol on
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There are several M series machines. Some record data, some don't. It would depend on which machine you had Sharon if it did record data.
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sleepycarol said:There are several M series machines. Some record data, some don't. It would depend on which machine you had Sharon if it did record data.
Yes, it had a smart card. They will record the data and keep it on file for my HMO. The new one records data in the machine and then I have to insert a card that extracts the data and I take it to Apria so they can read it and send it to my HMO after 60 days. Then, the HMO buys the machine and I stop paying the rental. In the meantime, with this machine I can actually see the data on the machine that the card will record later.
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Permalink Reply by Glen England on
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As far as I know, I had a great experience with Apria with regard to my CPAP. They gave me very adequate instruction on the operation of the machine. They call me every 6 months or so which is as often as my PPO allows me to get new mask/tubing/water tanks/filters, etc. I always get the supplies the day after I place the order and have never had a bad experience with them.
I live near St. Louis Missouri and my DME location is in Collinsville IL. I have never had any experience with another DME so, maybe my experience is not as good as it could be, but, thus far, I've had no complaints. I've been on CPAP for 3 years now.
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Granted I am not an expert in this area yet, as I have only been on CPAP for about two weeks now but my Apria office in Charlotte did a great job as far as I am concerned. My doctor wrote a prescription for a fairly basic machine. I tired it out over a weekend and called Apria first thing on Monday morning to let them know that I was not comfortable with the pressure during exhaling. They called my doctor, got a new prescription written, and replaced the machine with one that included C-Flex later that day. They also followed up by phone a week later to find out how things were going.
I'm still getting adjusted to using the machine, but Apria has been great so far.
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I had a very bad experience with Apria, which I spent over 10 minutes writing about, but have now deleted, as the particulars really aren't important. I will just say, Apria is one of the places that I will NEVER do business with again, for any reason.
I took my machine back to them, terminated my rental, and then visited other DMEs and found one that I thought would do a good job. I called my insurance company and told them what had happened with Apria, they were very supportive and said they did not want me to use a company that had poor technical support.
I then informed my doctor that I did not have any credibility in that location to provide me with accurate technical support and she sent my prescription to my new DME, whom I had done some Mystery Shopping on before I selected them. Later, several of the staff in the doctor's office told me they had had a lot of trouble with the local Apria, but some insurance companies had Apria as their preferred provider, and that is why they used them. They spoke very highly of the DME that I had chosen, and I am very happy with the service I have gotten there, they have been EXCELLENT.
I am sure Apria is like all franchises, there are good ones and bad ones, but no one should have to deal with any business that doesn't value their customers, or know about their products, no matter what their corporate structure.
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