Lets talk about supplies. Durable medical equipment (DME) companies are supposed to be there to support all of us family members who care for the sick or deserving. He they are sometimes more of a hindrance than a help. DME stands for durable medical equipment. This can be broken down into equipment such as feeding tubes or oxygen down to the simple tubing for feeds and the diapers/incontinent supplies. But they and also include things big like transportation vehicles or safety sleeping arrangements.
So I can only speak of my experiences with them. Most of my occurrences have been less than positive. Now I am not going to speak ill of those who help. Some of the employees bend over backwards to ensure your shipment arrives to you. I am going to assume that all of you have those angel personnel who we all try to find out their direct numbers and deal with no one else. However until you find those people, our life may be a little more complicated than it should be.
My daughter currently obtains her items from 3 different DME companies.
The first one is for her food and food supplies only. More times than not, I place her monthly order to receive a message stating the account will be updated in 24-48 hours. Simple, right….WRONG. Even after a week, the online account update does not exist. As a follow up, I will email the supervisor, who will followup with a justification as to why they “never retrieved my order and to disreguard my confirmation email. But she has put a rush on delivery.
DONE, right? NO
The second DME company handles only the incontinence supplies. After a growth spurt a size change was required. Upon no receipt of supplies, I reached out to my daughter’s PCP to see if they had any feedback. Nada. So I took another break from work to call this DME company to find out why the stall in supplies and when to expect the updated size. Found out they have not been paid from over 9 months ago so they could not seen any more supplies out to my house with lack of payment. They requested an EOB from the primary insurance. After work and on my personal computer where all my passwords are saved, I was able to send them the explanation of benefits stating that diapers are not covered by them. But earlier that day I reached out to Medicaid case manager asking why the lack of payment causing the lack of supplies. She explained per her computer they have been authorized for the entire time. AKA there’s a breakdown in the system that my daughter is falling victim of.
If that isn’t enough, There is one more DME company.
This last company provides adaptive equipment. First off I failed to have faith in my daughter and her Houdini capabilities and COMPLETELY underestimated her. In under 5 months she has learned how to get out of her updated stroller, car seat, and medical safety bed. So after me stating we need an update in equipment This has taken over a week with greater than 7 phone calls to only be narrowed down to me taking off another day of work for them to come out of the house, what for, no one could tell me specifics.
All of this may be simplified down to 1 DME company if I only had 1 insurance company, but my primary insurance has specific companies they work with and not all DME companies offer all the supplies every child needs.
My gripe is can we please streamline this system! SERIOUSLY. Above was exacerbated this week from the updated change in safety concerns, but the other 2 DME’s remain typical: monthly orders, follow ups, and ensuring relevant MD orders. All of this time is tedious and the calls back n forth during business hours enhance the challenge. Note to DME companies: NOT all who require DME supplies are sitting at home jobless.