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Collision with the med-supply biz

Posted by Sleepy Time Time on January 06, 2005 at 11:00:42:


Well, I have had a frustrating couple of days. My doc wrote me a script for a particular machine, and I called 8 providers and none of them carry it, and they all said "we dont have it and we cant order it."

Then I talked to a rep for one of the Cpap manufacturers -- the one who makes the machine i was looking for -- and he said that's not true. "They can order anything you ask them for, they just won't"

Evidently, this is due to what is called the "preferred provider" relationship.

The rep said these supply companies have very cozy relationships with manufacturers who give them rebates if they sell a certain number of their machiens per month -- so they only push those, and wont order machines made by non-"preferred" proders." And evidnetly, the bigger manufacturers are the ones who are best able to nail down these relationships with the suppliers, so the smaller manufactuers are getting squeezed out

One gal at a supplier even told me "Well, if we special-ordered that machine, that means we are putting forth a lot of effort and we wont be re-imbursed for all that effort."


"All that effort?"

I was dumbstruck by the arrogance and bald greed of such a comment -- I mean, if they got that machine for me, they WOULD get the $180 a month for the machine from my insurance company -- but evidently, 30 minutes worth of "extra effort" required to order a machine is deemed too much effort to make a "sale."

So i guess I'm gonna have to just lay out the $600 out of pocket to buy it over the net.


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