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Do You Use Oxygen Tanks or a Portable Concentrator?
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Colleen, you can ask whatever, I am more than happy to answer. My oxygen company (Medcare Equipment) charges $1,756.11. My insurance UPMC pays $1,041.19 so I am left to pay $233. I pay the company what I can every month.. being on disability your money doesn’t go far so whatever I can pay I do. They haven’t said anything yet or asked for more money. Not only is ririthot but the noise they make.. couldn’t have it in my bedroom. It upsets me that insurance does not cover or pay more for oxygen It is a medication that I need everyday so they should treat it as a medicine! And funny you should ask this today as I just got a phone call from my electric company because they sent me a form with regard to having oxygen and being put on a priority if the power goes out in the winter. They wanted to know if I was using a concentrator… I said I use 2 concentrators. I told her I am sure that my power won’t gone on any sooner but it is nice that the power company does that. Well, I have gone on long enough. Take care — be strong — we are fighters with this illness! Try to have a Merry Christmas margie
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I’m a little late with a response to this question but I switched to the portable concentrator called the Oxy-Go. Mine does pulse and goes to 4 Liters. I’m down to 3 liters. I weaned myself down from 6 liters! My sats stay about 98/99 at rest and with any exertion they do drop to 92/93 because of my right sided heart failure. I had the tanks which drove me crazy because of how heavy and bulky they were ( C tanks). I also refused to use the “stroller” carriers as I didn’t like the attention drawn to it. By the way, my portable recharges in the car, I have two extra batteries which I keep recharged and so I have about 7 hours of o2.
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Andrew, I wish I could have gotten a portable concentrator for my son but we had trouble getting insurance to cover it because he was a minor. He also became so sick that he needed a high pulse and we couldn’t find a portable concentrator to accommodate his needs.
I know what you are saying about the stroller. My son had to go to grade school pulling that…talk about unwanted attention!
Anyone else here use the Oxy-Go? What has your experience been?
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@colleensteele I get how hard it is to get that portable oxygen without insurance approval. I currently have the Inogen machine and really do love it. It especially makes it easier for travel if someone is able to use the pulse flow style oxygen. It was SOOOO expensive though and I ended up setting up a GoFundMe account when I wanted to get one and raised enough money so I could have it after my surgery last May. I recently traveled to Philly and it was great to take with me and way easier to put in a backpack vs wheeling the tank behind me. Especially with walking from place to place it makes it more accessible.
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Allot to digest. Thanks for info.
I’m having a problem with my concentrator. I’m to use for sleep & had mishap a couple of nights ago, waking with water up my nose. Ordered a new trap, but used it last night with water drained & left my pulse ox on. I woke up about an hr in & saw my sats were 88. I’m around 93 when awake without o2 so feeling defeated. I had it at 4l, cont.
Insurance wants me to go for cpap o2 titrate, but I don’t use cpap, so thought I’d just pay out of pocket for machine. My instruction manual was obviously translated from another language & not helpful…..poop. -
@dinky1952 it sounds like you might benefit from the CPAP. Were you tested for it for a sleep study? I would think that might be the next step that your doctors would want to talk about with you so that you could hopefully get the equipment that you need covered by insurance. I have been wearing Bipap and have experimented with it and using it the last month actually improved my exercise tolerance so if you have any questions just feel free to ask!
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Brittany, I have had a couple of sleep studies. Any sleep apnea I may have is corrected by a tongue mouth device, but my sats still drop so o2 was ordered for sleep. It’s just impossible to get insurance coverage without a cpap/o2 titate study. I can’t tolerate cpap. Don’t mind the toungue thingie. But withe the tongue device & o2 cannula, I can’t afford a screw up in o2 delivery or my sats will go down. Just can’t take in enough air. Frustrating, so I stopped using my concentrator until I can figure out why I’m not getting good oxygen output from the concentrator. If I’m going to be hypoxic, I’d rather do it without my nose & mouth being blocked. (My last sleep study showed good results fron tongue device, not dental appliance, but o2 still dropping without interruptions in resp.)
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Portable concentrator is best option for good health.
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Hi @danieldgranger, I love my portable oxygen concentrator (POC). Do you have experience using one, too? What do you like best about it?
I enjoy the freedom and not having to lug around huge oxygen tanks using my energy. Thanks for sharing your opinion on this topic.
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