Here is you bedtime story for tonight.
Happy reading: http://nrcme.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/FMCSAMedicalExaminerHandbook-2014MAR18.pdf
DOT Physicals
- Thread starter hossman2011
- Start date
Here is you bedtime story for tonight.
Happy reading: http://nrcme.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/FMCSAMedicalExaminerHandbook-2014MAR18.pdf
According to the CDC, insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic. It's out of control.
In 2012 the National Sleep Foundation (a non-profit sleep industry group), and the National Department of Transportation, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all agreed that as many as 5% of the population (actually somewhere between 5 million and 15.7 million) has sleep apnea. Now in 2014 the National Institute of Health's Neurological Disorders and Stroke division estimate as many as 18 million have sleep apnea. The National Sleep Foundation has updated their figures to be at least 18 million, but likely between 10 and 20 percent is the real number. 10 percent is 31.4 million, and 20 percent is 62.8 million. And they're pushing the "upwards of 60 million" hard. The reality is it's closer to the 5 percent figure, or less than 15 million.
The National Sleep Foundation also estimates that as much as $18 billion is lost to employers in lost productivity due to all sleep disorders. The CPAP industry was a $7.96 billion industry in 2007, and in 2013 it exploded to $19.72 billion, or more than is lost to employers in revenue. it's expected to double to more than $40 billion by 2017.
Sleep testing can be a very lucrative business, and labs have popped up in free-standing clinics and hospitals across the country. Over the past decade, the number of accredited sleep labs that test for the disorder has quadrupled, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Average is around $1900 a night, two nights is typical.
A website for Aviisha, a sleep testing company, has a special page for physicians showing a picture of a doctor with a stack of money in his lab coat pocket. And the American Academy of Sleep Medicine offers seminars on the "business of sleep medicine for physicians" at a golf resort in Arizona.
It's partly because of media hype, a concerted effort of the sleep industry to hype it, and the fact that sleep disorders are now responsible for more maladies than is aspartame, smoking and McDonalds combined. Everything that's wrong with you can now be traced directly to a sleep disorder of some kind. If you didn't have a sleep disorder you wouldn't have fallen down and broken your hip. That Irritable Bowel Syndrome? Yep, sleep disorder, probably sleep apnea. Dandruff? Dry Eye Syndrome? The heartbreak of psoriasis? Bad at math? You betcha. All because of a sleep disorder.
Meanwhile, insurer spending on the testing procedure has skyrocketed. Medicare payments for sleep testing from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in 2009, and is estimated to be more than $400 million in 2014, according to the Office of the Inspector General. And that's just Medicare, not other insurance or out of pocket expenses.
Dr. David Gross, medical director of the National Rehabilitation Hospital says anyone who is overweight or is diagnosed with any kind of cardiopulmonary condition statistically has sleep apnea. Not surprisingly, according to Gross, more than three-quarters of the patients who come to his lab are diagnosed with apnea. How conveeenient.
Dr. Fred Holt, an expert on fraud and abuse and a medical director of Blue Cross Blue Shield in North Carolina ain't buying it. He says there are too many ways to decrease or eliminate sleep apnea without having to resort to sleep testing and the inevitable prescribed CPAP machine, including losing weight and sleeping on your side.
In 2012 the National Sleep Foundation (a non-profit sleep industry group), and the National Department of Transportation, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all agreed that as many as 5% of the population (actually somewhere between 5 million and 15.7 million) has sleep apnea. Now in 2014 the National Institute of Health's Neurological Disorders and Stroke division estimate as many as 18 million have sleep apnea. The National Sleep Foundation has updated their figures to be at least 18 million, but likely between 10 and 20 percent is the real number. 10 percent is 31.4 million, and 20 percent is 62.8 million. And they're pushing the "upwards of 60 million" hard. The reality is it's closer to the 5 percent figure, or less than 15 million.
The National Sleep Foundation also estimates that as much as $18 billion is lost to employers in lost productivity due to all sleep disorders. The CPAP industry was a $7.96 billion industry in 2007, and in 2013 it exploded to $19.72 billion, or more than is lost to employers in revenue. it's expected to double to more than $40 billion by 2017.
Sleep testing can be a very lucrative business, and labs have popped up in free-standing clinics and hospitals across the country. Over the past decade, the number of accredited sleep labs that test for the disorder has quadrupled, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Average is around $1900 a night, two nights is typical.
A website for Aviisha, a sleep testing company, has a special page for physicians showing a picture of a doctor with a stack of money in his lab coat pocket. And the American Academy of Sleep Medicine offers seminars on the "business of sleep medicine for physicians" at a golf resort in Arizona.
It's partly because of media hype, a concerted effort of the sleep industry to hype it, and the fact that sleep disorders are now responsible for more maladies than is aspartame, smoking and McDonalds combined. Everything that's wrong with you can now be traced directly to a sleep disorder of some kind. If you didn't have a sleep disorder you wouldn't have fallen down and broken your hip. That Irritable Bowel Syndrome? Yep, sleep disorder, probably sleep apnea. Dandruff? Dry Eye Syndrome? The heartbreak of psoriasis? Bad at math? You betcha. All because of a sleep disorder.
Meanwhile, insurer spending on the testing procedure has skyrocketed. Medicare payments for sleep testing from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in 2009, and is estimated to be more than $400 million in 2014, according to the Office of the Inspector General. And that's just Medicare, not other insurance or out of pocket expenses.
Dr. David Gross, medical director of the National Rehabilitation Hospital says anyone who is overweight or is diagnosed with any kind of cardiopulmonary condition statistically has sleep apnea. Not surprisingly, according to Gross, more than three-quarters of the patients who come to his lab are diagnosed with apnea. How conveeenient.
Dr. Fred Holt, an expert on fraud and abuse and a medical director of Blue Cross Blue Shield in North Carolina ain't buying it. He says there are too many ways to decrease or eliminate sleep apnea without having to resort to sleep testing and the inevitable prescribed CPAP machine, including losing weight and sleeping on your side.
On page 85 of the current Landline Magazine, there is an ad for this place:
Safety First Sleep Solutions
Sleep study for $249
If you think you many need one, and don't have health insurance, this might be the way to go.
Safety First Sleep Solutions
Sleep study for $249
If you think you many need one, and don't have health insurance, this might be the way to go.
drifter
Expert Expediter
Got my dot physical yesterday. ..doctor never mentioned any thing about weight..snoring or sleep study..but physical had doubled in price in 2 yrs..232 lbs ..5 ft 8...bmi..35..I think a lot of this is media hipe. .Dame Nemo satelite radio bs..and on and on
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