Preferred Homecare seems to be the only place in Tucson that accepts Medicare, etc. HOWEVER, in 2023, Preferred became part of Lincare. See their local contact below.
If you need someone to listen, care, and reply, CALL LINCARE. After many months of no response from numerous voice and email messages I left for Preferred, I discovered that Lincare answers their phones and returns calls! They have a patient portal too.
Sorry for this long message, but I worked for months to get Preferred to respond to me. I hope this saves someone out there the pain and needless suffering I endured for months of not having new supplies and being "gaslighted" by the lack of competence and caring from Preferred Homecare.
To get the supplies I needed, I kept a record of each Preferred Homecare Call Center phone call over about six months. Date. Time. Name of operator. Reason for the call. (You can NEVER get through to Preferred on the phone. It's impossible).
I was told each time that I was "out of compliance" so my insurance company would not pay. Preferred sent me a collections letter and wanted to force me to return my CPAP that I was almost done paying for. Each call center worker transferred me to a "Special Agent" who said they could not access my full records from Preferred. They said they would pass the message along, but I never got a reply.
My sleep doctor sent numerous faxes to Preferred letting them know that I was not out of compliance! I used the CPAP every night without fail for at least four hours or more. The Call Center said that there was no record of a report from my doctor. This was a lie.
The Call Center said that I must have yet another overnight sleep test or they would not service my account, even though they continued to take money from my bank account each 19th of the month while all of this was going on. (In the end, I overpaid the CPAP amount!)
So, my insurance paid for another overnight sleep test, but I could not get supplies from Preferred until four months after the latest test to prove that I complied. At the end of the four months, Preferred continued to say I was not in compliance!
Next, a rep from my insurance company placed a conference call with me and the Call Center. This time, we stayed on the line while being transferred from one person to the next at Preferred. My insurance company rep recorded this entire episode which lasted over one hour. The insurance company rep said he had never heard of such incompetence in his whole career. He was equally appalled.
Finally, we were connected to a person who works at Preferred in Tucson. She repeated everything nonsensical thing I had been told for months. As a last resort, she allowed me to visit the Preferred Homecare office in Tucson to meet with a Respiratory Therapist to review my account.
I took a witness with me to the meeting at Preferred in Tucson. I also took a large file folder full of notes from every call I made to the Call Center. I took printouts of every email I sent that went unanswered. In this face-to-face meeting, I felt angry when Preferred Homecare told me, "Oops, our mistake. You have always complied with the minimum of four hours per night over the last two years. We don't know what happened. We are sorry for the error."
I left that day with all the supplies I had been denied for months - new masks, filters, tubing, and water reservoir.
Since then, I have ordered supplies without any issues. But it if ever happens again, I won't waste time. I'll go to Preferred and wait patiently in the lobby until I can get an appointment to see a respiratory therapist again.
By the way, respiratory therapists have been great to work with. It's the incompetence of Preferred Homecare that is the danger here.
https://www.lincare.com/en/
TUCSON - LINCARE
1020 E PALMDALE, SUITE 110
TUCSON, AZ 85714-3309
520-795-8161 phone
520-746-0903 fax read more
