Sleepcare Diagnostics Closing: A Cincinnati Based Sleep Disorder and CPAP Center
Sleepcare Diagnostics, a Mason Ohio based sleep disorder testing center and CPAP supply company has closed its doors for good on January 1st, 2014 and this has left many Cincinnati area sleep apnea sufferers and CPAP users without a facility to obtain new CPAP supplies such as CPAP masks, CPAP machine filters, tubing, and any other replacement parts for CPAP therapy. Many people are wondering what to do and where to get their CPAP supplies now that this sleep industry mega-giant is no longer around. Are there local stores that Sleepcare patients can go to? It just so happens to be that 1800CPAP.com has a store within 2 miles of Sleepcare Diagnostics and proudly serves self pay CPAP users or people that wish to submit their own claim to their insurance provider for reimbursement. I’ll elaborate more on this below but you’ll be shocked on how much you actually save when you pay for CPAP supplies out of pocket.
So Why Did Sleepcare Diagnostics Close?
Sleepcare Diagnostics was founded in 1985 and started out as a small operation that grew rapidly with the explosion of sleep apnea awareness and testing. Throughout the years Sleepcare became known as the premier center for sleep testing in the Cincinnati, Ohio area with Sleepcare Diagnostics Mason, Sleepcare Diagnostics Eastgate, Sleep care Diagnostics Cheviot and eventually expanded operations to the Sarasota, Florida area. Their flagship sleep physician Shahrokh Javaheri MD, a world renowned published author of sleep disorder research and Dr. Sanjiv Patel treated many of the sleep apnea patients throughout the booming years of sleep lab based testing. Two of the founding 3 members of 1800CPAP.com served as the Sleep Lab Director (Jason Smith RPSGT) and DME Director (Jason Crowe) for 8 years and worked under the tutelage of these physicians. Our third founding member (Mark Hixson) was a marketing and sales representative for a company that provided DME for Sleepcare Diagnostics, Hooks Medical.
So if things were going so well, how did they close? The reasons are multi-layered and can be blamed on 3 major changes currently effecting sleep labs all across the country.
- Sleep facility based testing versus at home sleep studies.
- With the prevalence of sleep apnea awareness growing it led to a multi-layered chain reaction in sleep. Not enough sleep labs could accommodate the amount of people that needed testing in a timely fashion and insurance companies were not yet reimbursing for at home sleep testing in many areas. Sleep labs also knew that they were reimbursed higher amounts for in-lab sleep testing versus at home sleep tests which meant that in order to pay for the high overhead they had, many people were referred to the in-lab study. While in labs studies are recommended for certain people with co-morbid conditions that should require the assistance of a certified sleep technician overseeing the study, many of the new referrals to the sleep labs were people with obvious sleep apnea that could have been tested in the comfort of their own home with the use of a home sleep testing device or portable sleep test.
- Insurance for sleep studies and CPAP supplies.
- A big spotlight was cast on sleep disorder testing (polysomnography) when insurance companies noticed how rapidly the growth of reimbursement was for this one small testing procedure of as well as how much and how often they had to pay out for the CPAP supplies and consumables. Medicare led the way with cuts to reimbursement and competitive bidding, meaning in local coverage areas across the country all durable medical equipment companies had to submit a bid to Medicare on how much they would accept as payment for CPAP related supplies. This led to every DME company in that area trying to get a piece of the pie by saying they would accept less for reimbursement? Any guess on how they can do this and still remain profitable? They do this by providing you with less than superior CPAP equipment such as inferior CPAP machines and CPAP masks. Sounds like a great way to save money but a lousy way to improve compliance in a medical field that already suffers a horrible success rate for ensuring successful CPAP therapy, national average is between 48-51%.
- Competition in the CPAP marketplace.
- Failure to recognize the changing market place and an increase in competitors will consume any company if they are not prepared for it. More and more people are using the internet to shop for everyday life consumables and that includes CPAP supplies and even home sleep testing kits. Brick and mortar operations are slowly being phased out; a good example would be Best Buy and its reduction of the box stores and more emphasis on online shopping.
Where Can Sleepcare Diagnostics Patient Go For CPAP Supplies?
With a storefront location less than 2 miles away from Sleepcare Diagnostics we are in a prime location to serve the many area CPAP users accustomed to shopping at Sleepcare for their CPAP supplies. We are a self pay operation and what that means for people looking to use healthcare insurance is a couple of money saving options. Traditional DME companies in all areas bill you or your insurance company 2 to 3 times the rate for any of the CPAP machines, CPAP masks and CPAP supplies that we offer. If you have NOT met your deductible or you have a high deductible then YOU will pay for this all out of pocket regardless of your insurance plan. An example of this would be a full face CPAP mask that would cost you between $99 and $159 from us will cost you upwards of $350 by going through a company that accepts insurance.
How can we do this and they can’t? Simple, they have contracts from the insurance companies to bill certain rates for certain equipment and legally they cannot charge you less than what they would bill the insurance company or Medicare. We do not have insurance contracts therefore we can set our own prices. We are a web based company that offers CPAP supplies to anyone around the world, regardless if you are down the street or you live in Australia we can ship CPAP products right to your front door. Stop by our store and look at all the new product lines from ResMed, Philips Respironics, Devilbiss, 3B and much more at 651 Reading Rd, Mason Ohio 45040 or call us 1-800-274-1366.
Sleepcare Diagnostics Patients
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Disclaimer: The views,expressions and opinions represented in this blog page do not reflect those of 1800CPAP.com, Ohio Sleep Awareness, LLC or their partners. These views and opinions are solely those of our blog author and merely presented as matter of opinion and proven researched data.