Discussion Forum

“I’ve been on Oxygen for several years now.  When originally went on it my private insurance is paying for it and they require I go with a certain company.  The company was horrible, it did not provide services.  When my doctor ordered me to go on, the first time was at night when my doctor wanted me to go on the tanks during the day too, they never got around to me ’till like 3 or 4 months later, I still wasn’t getting any response from no one on changing and providing me with the tanks.  At that time fortunately I went on Medicare so I was able to change.  I tried one locally here.  They provided me with a concentrated that was old, it smelled, it was noisy.  I just wasn’t getting great service with them.  Plus they told me they weren’t sure they were staying in the business.  At that time I went asked around Columbus and I received excellent service since.  When the electricity out, they would like 2:00 o’clock in the morning still out here delivering tanks, to make sure everybody has oxygen.  You can’t put that into a bid, you know, it just doesn’t work.  It’s about the service and the quality of the service and it’s so vital for the oxygen that, I don’t know how you are going to put that into a bid.  The way it’s paid for now, they actually pay more for the concentrator than they do for the portable oxygen in the tanks and I’m sure that cost to the company is much more expensive for the portable oxygen tanks than it is for the concentrator in the long term.  I don’t know what Medicare is thinking.  There at least needs to be some new ways of figuring out how to pay for it.  But certainly not, competitive bidding is not going to do it.  It’s not going to tell you what quality they are, what they are going to actually produce the service that you need.  It’s frightens me to death.  Thank you. “

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