After being diagnosed with mixed sleep apnea in 1991 and using a CPAP every night since, my doctor ordered a sleep study, required by Medicare in order to obtain payment for  Autopap.  During the night of the sleep study, I was unable to sleep due to the fact that every time I nodded off I stopped breathing and woke myself up.  Anyone know a way out of this catch 22 situation?  Can't sleep because I can't breath, can't get Medicare to pay for a new machine because I can't sleep without one to complete the study.

Why were you scheduled for a 'regular' sleep study and not a RETITRATION study?  Did he want to verify you still HAVE sleep apnea or determine if you have additional respiratory issues?  

You have a few options, which may or may not be viable depending on what your doc is trying to find or rule out:

1.  Try the study again with a sleep aid such as Ambien, Ambien CR, Lunesta, Sonata.  If you don't already take these you'll need to get samples and try at home for a few nights, a couple of weeks before the study, to find out how they affect you.  Some people will sleep well with one kind but not sleep well or at all with the others, so you need to work out in advance which one will help you sleep the best.

2.  Get a titration study in the lab so you are sleeping with CPAP, if that is acceptable to what the doctor has in mind.

3.  Get a rental Auto CPAP for a 'mini' titration study at home with a pulse oximeter.  This one I'm not sure if medicare will approve the purchase of an Auto CPAP based on this type of 'study' as the evidence collected is likely not complete as it would be in a lab.  Again this depends on what the doc is trying to find out.
  
Blessings,
--pseudonym

Dozing in Damon wrote:

After being diagnosed with mixed sleep apnea in 1991 and using a CPAP every night since, my doctor ordered a sleep study, required by Medicare in order to obtain payment for  Autopap.  During the night of the sleep study, I was unable to sleep due to the fact that every time I nodded off I stopped breathing and woke myself up.  Anyone know a way out of this catch 22 situation?  Can't sleep because I can't breath, can't get Medicare to pay for a new machine because I can't sleep without one to complete the study.

You should be brought back in for an in-lab titration study now which Medicare WILL pay for. OR - under certain circumstances Medicare does now pay for a 3 month at-home sleep study w/xPAP but I'm not sure of all the details.

It may well be that you will now need, not an autoPAP, but a bi-level. And one of the requirements for Medicare to pay for a bi-level is for you to have "failed" CPAP therapy which I take it you are now encountering that "failure".

Medicare does or did in 2006 require a minimum of 2 hours sleep out of 6 hours bedtime to qualify. I did all right during my sleep evaluation, sleeping 5:49 hours out of some 7-8 hours bedtime - BUT - during my titration I only slept 42 minutes out of 6 hours bedtime so they had to bring me back in for a second titration wherein I only slept 98 minutes out of 6 hours bedtime - BUT - those two combined equaled out to just over the required 2 hours and Medicare did pay for the evaluation, both titrations and my xPAP equipment.

I'm taking a guess that you were NOT on Medicare in 1991 when you first started CPAP therapy? That would certainly explain WHY you had to go thru a sleep evaluation study before they will pay for the titration study. As Pseudonym suggested, try Ambien, Lunesta, Rozarem, Sonata; see which one works for you w/o unpleasant side effects and then, w/your sleep doctor's permission, take whichever one worked for you the night of your next sleep evaluation.

Good luck!


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