The Great Medical Equipment Scam

Have you ever needed or wanted something only to find out you couldn’t get it because it is “medical equipment” available only through certified providers and/or with a Dr’s orders?

Say you want to have a hit of oxygen. I understand in CA., you can stop at an Oxygen Bar and get a couple of hits. To relax you and rejuvenate all those parts that may be a bit low because they worked so hard, you understand.

Can you do it at home? Say “medical equipment.”

How asinine can you get? Here’s someone who made an oxygen generator as a 15 year old kid http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Stories/001.1/ Stick a jar over the O2 terminal, a pump from your aquarium in the jar, and breathe the output from the pump. There’s your medical equipment. Just don’t try to buy a safer, more convenient, cheaper in the long term, model. You don’t have a prescription.

Oh yeah. Be sure and test to make sure you have the right terminal. Breathing pure hydrogen can be seriously bad for you.

For those of us who snore big time, we potentially face the scam every month or two. If you’ve ever been diagnosed as snoring due to sleep apnea you see it. You likely have a CPAP, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, machine, an air pump.

What does it do?

It is designed to run continuously for extended periods. Just like the pump on an aquarium.

The pressure can be set very exactly. Just like any pump with a properly fitted pressure valve.

It can probably take secondary input, from an oxygen tank for example. Just like any pump with a T connector in the intake

If you’re lucky, it has a heated moist air system to prevent drying your throat and nose. That’s a hot plate and water jug to most of us.

Then there are all the little plastic, rubber, or whatever they are parts like the air hose, the face mask/nose insert and the part that started this rant.

The inch long, inch diameter, connector from the pump to the water jug. That should be 20 cent part is also “medical equipment.” Just because insurance covers it, doesn’t mean we should sit quietly and let highway robbery continue in the guise of “medical equipment.”

Neither of these items, the CPAP machines and oxygen generators, as well as many other items of "medial equipment" should be hard to get. They should be on the shelves at Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, and Irv's Discount Electronics. They’d still be safer than pet food from China.


Time to see if our congresspersons work for the medical equipment industry or us. If you don’t already know, here are your elected officials: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/