There are a finite number of medical professionals who are qualified to diagnose sleep apnea in patients and then prescribe the appropriate treatment to alleviate the condition. It’s well-known that prescription treatments like CPAP, AutoPAP, or BiPAP are the best way to effectively treat sleep apnea since there is no real cure for the disorder.
For a long time, the only way to diagnose your patient with sleep apnea was to have them undergo a complex and uncomfortable sleep study in a hospital lab setting. But now there are more options than ever before to help your patients get the treatment they need sooner with accurate sleep apnea testing results—all from the comfort of their own home.
By entering into an in-office partnership with ApneaMed, medical professionals can give their patients quicker, more affordable options for diagnosing their sleep apnea. Below are 3 incredible benefits you’ll see by having a home sleep test unit in your office.
Get Your Patient Diagnosed Sooner
When it comes to treating sleep apnea, time is absolutely of the essence. Sleep apnea can lead to dangerous health issues like diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and heart disease if left untreated. Because of the limited resources of sleep labs, coupled with the high frequency of sleep apnea, waiting lists can prevent your patients from getting the diagnosis and prescription they need to get treatment. With an ApneaMed home sleep testing unit in your office, you can provide quick, more comprehensive care for your patients.
Additionally, having the home sleep test unit available in your office means you can lend out the kit to your patients and allow them to conduct the study at home. They can then return the units where you can either review the data and provide a diagnosis or work with ApneaMed to have our board-certified sleep physicians do it for you. You will be able to set the fees associated with this test or bill your patient’s insurance directly.
Save Your Patient the Cost of In-Lab Sleep Studies
Unlike other, more complex sleep disorders, sleep apnea is fairly easy to diagnose and treat. Why make your patients shoulder the hefty cost burden associated with traditional, in-lab sleep studies? For patients that may suffer from narcolepsy, insomnia, or restless leg syndrome, the extra vitals measured in an in-lab study are necessary and imperative to learn more about their individual condition, which justifies the cost. But, for patients with sleep apnea, those extra vitals are not necessary to diagnose and treat their disorder.
Allowing your patients to test for their sleep apnea and get treatment without the $2000-$4000 price tag is an incredible option, and likely the only viable option for some. By partnering with ApneaMed, you can have a home sleep testing unit on hand in your office where you can control the costs and billing associated with the testing and diagnosis process.
Allow Patients to Get Tested From Their Own Homes
Without even considering the incredible cost and wait time associated with an in-lab sleep study, it’s well known that these studies are uncomfortable and challenging—and that’s if they are able to collect enough data in just one night. Being hooked up to dozens of nodes and wires, dealing with breathing tubes, and being in a new, unfamiliar environment can inhibit your patient from getting the necessary hours of observed sleep to allow for a complete and accurate diagnosis. Frequently, sleep labs will ask patients to come back for one or more nights of testing, leading to increased costs and discomfort.
By working with ApneaMed to have a home sleep testing kit in your office, your patients will be able to take the test from the comfort of their own home, in their own bed. They will be able to sleep more soundly in familiar surroundings while only having to follow a few rules to ensure accurate test results from one night’s sleep. Simply send the unit home with your patient, suggest they limit caffeine and alcohol consumption for 24 hours, and try not to nap on the day of the test. Then, they simply follow their normal bedtime routine while adhering the unit’s instructions for appropriate use.
Other Partnership Options
For medical professionals, ApneaMed strongly advocates for the in-office partnership as it provides you and your patients with the best, most convenient options for sleep apnea home testing. However, we know that this option may not be the best for your practice and so we offer two other partnerships for your consideration:
Referral Partnership: With this option, you can refer patients or employees to ApneaMed for sleep apnea in-home testing. We will contact the referred individual and set them up with their own home sleep testing unit to evaluate them for sleep apnea. Once diagnosed by our board-certified sleep physicians, they will be contacted by our patient care representatives who will review treatment options with them directly. With this option, we will bill the patient directly for the test.
Mail-Out Partnership: As a medical provider, you will be able to order a home sleep test from ApneaMed and we will then mail the unit to the intended recipient. Once they have successfully completed their home testing, they will mail it back to us for evaluation and diagnosis. Once diagnosed by our board-certified sleep physicians, they will be contacted by our patient care representatives who will review treatment options with them directly. With this option, you will be able to set the fees associated with this test or bill your patient’s insurance directly.
We hope that you consider a partnership with ApneaMed that meets your patients’ needs. Deciding on the right partnership program will depend on a variety of factors, so we encourage you to contact us directly to help determine which program best suits the needs of your practice and your patients.