LEXINGTON Sleep apnea is serious disease that is now getting the attention it deserves Insurance companies, aware of the significance of this disease, are encouraging their members to be tested. Diagnosing, testing, and treating patients for sleep apnea is considered preventative medicine because co-morbidities exist with sleep apnea patients:
48% have type 2 diabetes
30% have hypertension
77% have obesity
36% have congestive heart failure
With the growing use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in treating sleep apnea, patient compliance is now the new challenge presented to durable medical equipment (DME) companies. Treating the patients initially is one thing, but keeping them compliant has become a difficult task. Advances in technology have placed a wireless modem on the patient’s CPAP machine enabling DME companies to monitor 24/7, but this requires daily monitoring of every individual patient, an impossible task to perform.
New software, named U-Sleep, is now available to perform the monitoring function. U-Sleep is a secure, innovative, cloud-based compliance management solution that monitors CPAP usage and “coaches” patients into therapy compliance. U-Sleep will notify the DME supplier when their patient has been out of compliance for three days in a row, which enables the DME to fix any issues in real time, instead of months down the road when they would have done a download on their machine. This application has helped DME providers obtain an increased compliance rate on their patients. U-Sleep coaches through phone calls, emails, and text messages letting the patient know that they are either not being compliant or are doing a great job and to keep up the good work. This helps patients know that they are not alone in this process and that their DME provider is monitoring their usage and encouraging them along the way. The benefits of using the U-Sleep software include:
Early detection/intervention of compliance and therapy issues promotes improved adherence.
Rules can identify patients requiring alternative therapy.
Management by exception ensures patients needing attention are promptly identified.
U-Sleep supports long-term care management and monitoring for abandonment.
Better outcomes are promoted through patient engagement.
Workflow efficiencies can be gained through integration with healthcare management software platforms such as EMRs.
When choosing your DME provider, make sure that they have compliance software and modem capabilities to ensure a higher compliance rate for your patients. Ensuring that they’re compliant through the first 90 days of usage is a thing of the past. CPAP monitoring for the life of your patient should be the new standard.