Yeah, so if your specialist tells you that they will order you a cpap machine and tells you North Atlantic Medical (NAM) will be helping you, just say no, and choose Sleepmed instead.
I have only started my intake form with Sleepmed and already am impressed.
We live in new england, it is often cold where we are, have you had rainouts? Thats where your cpap tube condenses the humid air from the humidifier, because the outside air is cold, and it causes "rain" to be sprayed in your face while you are sleeping.
When I called sleepmed for my initial intake, they offered a heated tube without me even asking for it, and offered me a new tank for my humidifier. NAM, get with it, we want heated tubes.
Now if you do get stuck with NAM, and you need a new tank for your humidifier, don't expect to get one easily. While your insurance will allow for a new tank a year, NAM won't offer one, instead you will get an impersonal robot call with a machine offering you a new tube, filter, and mask. If you want something else, good luck, there is no button you can push to get to a real person, the only way you can talk to someone say to get a mask fitting is to claim that your insurance has changed. When you threaten NAM with an inability to make money off you, they are quick to call.
Now say they offered a new mask in the mail, said they had this fabric mask without hard plastic, awesome i thought, so i "changed my insurance" to ensure a call from them. They offered to give me a fitting allow me to try on different masks, and that they will call me. I say I work from 9:30-6 and being in a call center i cannot answer calls not related to registering hospital patients.
For two weeks straight I watched my phone vibrate across my desk Monday through Friday, with out of state numbers, every couple hours... HELLO PEOPLE... What did i say.
So I complained and asked NAM whether i owned my machine at this point and if i was free to leave NAM. No response on the machine ownership. The calls stopped, but that still meant' that I didn't have a mask, and would wind up using my same old, likely moldy mask, for a full 6 months total. I got fed up and asked again about machine ownership, still no response. So I called Sleepmed, who was happy to call me per my schedule.
In short, these people are money hungry. You know those little fiber filters that your cpap uses, do you know how much those cost my insurance, like $40 for a little piece of what amounts to the soft fuzzy side of Velcro. You are making a killing, you should hire people who actually care. The one time i went to their office in sharon or stoughton, or wherever it was, it was a crappy dark rented space, on Saturday with limited hours for the real working world, and would only see me until noon, and they would have back to back patients scheduled so tightly that you only had 7 minutes to be fit, and choose a mask.
Do yourself a favor and Call Sleepmed: 877-934-7447
Don't even consider working with these bozos and get real service.
Way back in 2005 when i first was introduced to NAM, I got a machine, had it for over a year, lost my insurance, and was sued for the machine. I was under the impression that I had owned the machine at that point. No matter, found a big box, stuck it in, with no padding, and mailed it off, with no insurance, nothing but delivery confirmation. I hope it broke. Really what do you do with used cpap machines full of bacteria, give it to masshealth people? Really now.
Technically NAM you were on a short leash with me, should have dumped you in 2010 as soon as my Dr ordered my services through you. I finally wised up, you will not be serving me in 2013.... BuhBye NAM!!!! Sleepmed answered called me on my schedule, they win! read more
