Sleep Dynamic Therapy

“Government efficiency” is surely an oxymoron, but think again, because the government is extremely efficient in wasting your tax dollars. Last week at the sleep lab, we conducted a repeat diagnostic sleep study in a Medicare patient (reimbursement ~ $800), which we believe was a complete waste of time and resources. Why did we have to repeat this study?

Because in the patient’s earlier split night study, in which this individual suffered from raging and life-threatening sleep apnea, the patient could only sleep for 87 minutes before we needed to switch over to PAP therapy, after having witnessed more than 100 apneas as well as repetitive oxygen desaturations below 60%.

The DME company claimed that Medicare would not cover the cost of the patient’s PAP device, because the individual needed 120 minutes of sleep to confirm the diagnosis of…did I mention it was raging life-threatening sleep apnea…

So, in the infinite wisdom of Medicare, an institution that imagines that sleep doctors don’t actually know what’s best for their patients, we were obliged to have the patient spend another night in the lab to confirm the diagnosis, because on the first night (split-night) we made the egregious mistake of being overly concerned with treating our patient for a serious medical condition and having enough time to complete a superior titration.

There ought to be a law!