In response to the article Where I Slept Tuesday Night,, my article about my night at the sleep lab at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, a “goatchowder” commented:
If you’d been living in the USA, that test would have cost you US$6000.
An anonymous commenter replied:
The flipside in Canada is that it takes about 6 months to get an appointment with a sleep specialist (and you need to see your GP first to get a referral) who can prescribe the sleep study.
That wasn’t the case for me.
So How Long Did I Have to Wait?
I had an appointment with my GP on June 5th. She said she could book me into the sleep lab on the week of Monday, June 18th, a mere two weeks later. I told her that I couldn’t make it then, as I would be in Boston all that week. I asked for a later date, and the booking people at the lab suggested July 3rd, the Tuesday after the long weekend. So I took it.
Simply put, I could’ve had the sleep lab appointment in 2 weeks, but since my schedule didn’t allow me, I got it in 4 weeks. And with a referral from my GP, not a sleep specialist, with a single phone call and for no direct charge (universal health care comes from taxes).
Sleep Lab and Auto-CPAP Costs in the U.S.
While I’m on the topic, can anyone in the U.S. who’s had a sleep study done on them tell me how much it costs, and whether or not it was covered by your insurance?
The anonymous commenter also included quite a bit about auto-CPAP machines. Here’s an excerpt:
Once you’ve figured out what you need, the big expense is buying the machine. I’m not sure about the States but in Canada the government pays for half, and often your work insurance pays for the other half. If you don’t have insurance, you pay for it yourself (about $1000).
So the Canadian system stills finds a way to screw the under-privileged.
My belief is that the deal’s about the same in the U.S., especially if you’re living below the median. Can anyone with experience or data confirm or counter this belief?
8 replies on “How Long Did I Wait for My Sleep Lab Appointment?”
I had this done in the US. My insurance did cover it, 80% IIRC for both the study and the CPAP. I don’t remember the details because the whole thing capped out my deductible so I was out US$500.
At the end of the day, it sounds like the bottom lines are the same. US$500 vs CDN$1,000… maybe not exact, but generally the same.
I suspect I probably pay more for my insurance than you pay into the tax system, but that’s just a guess. 😉
Also in Canada I probably wouldn’t have had the issue I did… apparently the CPAP was paid for the insurance company as a lease, in case you only need it for a short while, there’s a point where they buy it outright. Not a big deal for me, except my company changed insurance providers before they had leased it long enough to buy outright. The amount of time spent on that was just stupid. 🙂
“Simply put, I could’ve had the sleep lab appointment in 2 weeks”
Actually, once you have the “green light” for the study, you can get tested within 24 hours. Simply ask to be put on the waiting list. The sleep labs operate 7 days/week and they have almost daily cancellations. That’s what I did.
Even before the study the specialist immediately recognised my situation was “critical” and he had me booked within 3 days (he made sure I was at the top of the waiting list). Then I had to wait 2 weeks before he could tell me the results. This was his idea of getting back to me “right away.” Only then could he book me again for a second study where I was to be hooked up to a CPAP machine.
Unfortunately nobody warned me about the possibility of claustrophobia. When I suddenly had a mask strapped to my face, and air shoved up my nose, I had a massive panic attack. Try as I may I couldn’t continue and I ended up bolting out of there.
The government only covers 2 studies/year so I couldn’t rebook, which is why I’m now trying to use an auto-CPAP at home, with a “nasal-pillows” mask (designed for those with clastrophobia). Some people claim they can adjust in one night. Others take months. Just about all report how much they “love” CPAP. It changes their life. They can’t imagine life without it. I’m not there yet, though I’m diagnosed with one of the worst cases of “severe obstructive sleep apnea” the specialist has seen.
Besides getting a sound sleep — which most suffers have gone without for years, but never knew it — proper sleep is an essential for weight loss. You burn fat when you sleep. But not if you have sleep apnea. And if you’re tired, where’s the energy for exercise? And because energy is depleted, the body then craves food energy instead. You can imagine what kind of cycle that produces. I find it more then a little curious that sleep apnea first appeared in medical journals in 1965, not long after fast-food and frozen food revolutionized how we ate.
As for the cost breakdown of the CPAP I think it’s like this: the government pays for $800 of the machine, and the patient pays for $1000, and is then reimbursed by their insurance. Most machines are priced at $1800, but if you opt for a model that is more expensive (like the autoCPAP) you have to pay for the difference.
You were lucky with your GP. I specifically told my GP that I wanted to be tested for sleep apnea because I found out I had ALL the classic signs (signs I’d been seeing him about for years, but which he never made connection) but he opted to refer me to a specialist first. That’s why it took six months. Turns out my GP knows nothing about the condition. Older GPs are often too lazy to keep up on advances in medicine which is why it’s advisable, when shopping for a GP, to find someone younger. I tried to do that last year (this was not the first time he failed to properly diagnose me) but Toronto is so drastically short on GPs they refuse to take new patients. And when the few I saw found out I already had a GP, they refused to take me. The sense I got was that GPs know each other in this city, and they don’t want to steal anyone’s patient.
My two were about $1000 each, pretty much all paid for by my insurance.
I was unsatisfied by the results for a variety of reasons, so I decided to build my own. The experiment I want to do is to gradually draw my weight down from its current high side of normal to skinny but not so much to be a medical risk, and see what happens to the apnea readings. This experiment would of course cost tens of thousands of dollars at US medical prices.
The other problem with the hospital sleep studies is that they both showed that I didn’t dream (i.e. my “sleep architecture” is devoid of REM sleep). Since I know that I do dream, there’s something wrong somewhere. Most likely, the sleep lab is such an unfamiliar environment I don’t sleep the same as I do at home. Thus, there’s a strong chance the results aren’t valid.
Fun thing is, you’ve actually heard me snore. We were both at the same Linux conference seven or eight years ago in the Bay Area, and it had gotten too late for me to take public transit back home, so one of the people you were sharing a hotel room with let me crash. Now you get to do it to other people.
Good luck!
Raph
@Raph: Oh, yeah, I remember: it was the Santa Clara Conference Center Hotel, and we were all there for the first O’Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference back in 2002. I was the other snoring guy, and Roger Dingledine was this close to just killing me in my sleep.
I think the other guys in the room were Zooko and Paul Prescod. There may or may not have been a sixth, and I know that John “Captain Crunch” Draper wanted very badly to visit.
I’ve had this done, as well (in San Antonio, TX)
The sleep study took abt the same time to be booked (~ 2 weeks) as the specialist I was seeing was in somewhat high demand (she has a very good reputation) . It turned out that I had mild apnea during most sleep, but severe apnea during REM sleep. (this happens to some people and can mess with your ability to go into REM sleep. )
My insurance covered part, altogether I paid ~$200 for the study and $450 for the CPAP machine, which was paid in a lease-to-own installment plan.
It should be noted that I didn’t need a referral. I had discovered that I had the symptoms of apnea (and I know it runs in the family) so I just called up the sleep specialist.
I live in waterloo, made an appointment with my GP, asking for a referral. By the time i had driven the 12 km from the office to my home, i had a phone call asking if i wanted to come to the sleep clinic *that night.* (no, i didn’t want. i need to freak out about this whole thing much much more.)
Interestingly I went for the test in Boston about 5 years ago at your mother’s suggestion.
My HMO required a referral from my PCP to a sleep specialist who ordered the test and arranged the CPAP. The $25 copay to him is the only expense I incurred.
The test was scheduled at my convenience within a couple of weeks (I actually went twice since I had more trouble sleeping than you did) and the CPAP was delivered to my home by a technician who explained how to use it.
I never saw a bill for either the test or machine so I don’t know the cost. I have had the machine replaced once and I get fresh supplies twice a year and again I never see a bill.
The improvement in both sleep and snoring was dramatic and immediate.
Joey
What were the results now of your tests?