ComplaintsforHome Medical Products, Inc

• Initial Complaint

  12/10/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Was billed on 10/6/21 when I picked up a CPAP breathing machine from Home Medical Products, Inc. The machine I picked up was a Resmed Airsense11. On the Resmed website one of the product highlights says the machine includes a integrated heated humidifier as part of the machine. My insurance and subsequently me paying the difference was charged a seperate line item for a heated humidifier. They submitted a charge of $350 to my insurance who settled on paying $337.07 and then me having to pay $12.93. They also charged a separate line item for a filter billing $7 and insurance settling for $6.80 and me having to pay $0.20. They billed for the machine a Resmed Airsense11 $2,500 with insurance settling on $2,460.50 and me having to pay $39.50. Account# XXXXXX. I contacted Home Medical Products, Inc and questioned and was told that's how they bill insurance. I insisted that it was insurance fraud. I asked how they could they charge separately for things the machine comes with. Was told that's how it is.

  Business response

  05/26/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 14, 2022/05/26) */ Good afternoon, Please note, in order to follow HIPAA guidelines and to protect the personal health information of our patient, we will refer to the patient as “Mr. C.” in this response letter where applicable. We received notification of the case number listed above on May 24, 2022. As the case was already closed for no response, ******* *****, the Director of Compliance and Education for Home Medical Products, Inc., contacted the BBB and asked them to reopen the complaint so we could provide a response. Our system indicates Mr. C. has been serviced out of our Knoxville branch location, which is appropriate based on his physical address. The address for the Knoxville office is **** ********* ***** ********** ********* XXXXX. The telephone number for the branch office is ************* For reference purposes, the patient took possession of the continuous positive airway pressure (PAP) device and related accessories (humidifier, mask, tubing, filters, etc.) on October 6, 2021, after an in-person overview of the device with an HMP Respiratory Therapist. This overview included the operation and proper care of the device. The BBB case description submitted on December 10, 2021, indicates Mr. C. feels he should not have been billed for the accessories and everything should have been included with the PAP device. Per notations in our system, Mr. C. called HMP of Knoxville on December 9, 2021, and discussed this with the branch manager. Additional notes indicate Mr. C. has been compliantly using the PAP device to effectively treat his obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which is a goal we want to attain with every patient using PAP therapy. Please allow me to provide a bit of background on how health insurance billing is done for PAP devices. The PAP device itself and all related accessories provided to patients are billed separately. Not every patient uses the same type of mask or tubing, and each type has a separate billing code for health insurances purposes. The accessories a patient receives when they are set up with the PAP device will determine which codes are to be billed to their health insurance carrier. Additionally, the accessories have a limited lifetime and must be replaced every so often. For example, the lifetime for PAP masks and tubing is three months and the lifetime for the plastic water chamber for the humidifier on a PAP device is six months. Thus, when these accessories wear out and replacement ones are provided, we will bill the health insurance company for the replacements. Mr. C noted the heated humidifier was integrated into the device. Until technological advances were made, the humidifier was a separate piece of equipment that attached to the PAP device. Every major manufacturer of PAP devices now integrates the humidifier into the PAP device for ease of use. Even though the humidifier is integrated into the PAP device, the humidifier is still a separate code to be billed to the patient’s health insurance company. I reviewed Mr. C.’s account and found no inconsistencies with the billing of his PAP device and related accessories. If you have any questions, please contact me at the information below. Respectfully submitted,

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