⠽⠊⠊⠝Jun 3, 2024
arclight

I'm taking a mail-order sleep study and tonight I unpacked all the gear and read the instructions. Hardware-wise everything seems fine; a few instructions could use clarification but overall it seems like a decent piece of diagnostic medical telemetry kit.

And there's an app.

I so want every MBA and app developer who voluntarily adds Facebook pixels and Google Analytics trash to every fucking product to be dragged up the side of an active volcano behind a Land Rover and unceremoniously chucked into the crater. Could I just get medical diagnostics without you sharing everything with your 867 closest personal affiliates? Is there one single thing you won't enshittify?

Why do we suffer you to live?

I imagine a team of biomedical engineers, physicians, and researchers developing amazing medical hardware that can do a lot of good, hardware that is immediately siezed and handed to their baboon and remora masters. Another press to squeeze out the last drop of blood from this turnip.

Jun 2, 2024 at 4:07amWeb
Show threadarclightJun 2, 2024
Can't you just do a simple job without being an absolute fucking creep?
Show threadarclightJun 2, 2024
I know, I know, I know but just once can't we get stuff made by people content to draw a salary and not all wound up in an Exit Strategy? Act like a vending machine instead of a goddamn shmoozing vampire tick. Money in, stuff out. Not some ongoing informational Lyme Disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
Show threadarclightJun 2, 2024
Donut has no time for your bullshit. #Caturday #CatsOfMastodon
Show threadMozJun 2, 2024

@arclight the worst ones don't work until you log into pihole and unblock all the tracking stuff.

Even though in some countries the privacy laws should prevent them adding the tracking in the first place.

This is a good reason to not just keep your old phone, but to clean it then swap it with someone you barely know (do this several times) so you have a burner phone to do this shit on.

Show threadStacey CampbellJun 2, 2024
@arclight 100% of the people I know that used a mail order sleep study kit got a follow-up call recommending the use of a CPAP...including myself. I've begun making snarky comments about Big CPAP.
Show threadarclightJun 2, 2024
@stacey_campbell I just need someone to prescribe me a new CPAP that doesn't eject bits of polyurethane foam into my lungs. I know I need one but it's not like you can buy one outright thus this test which is going to tell me what I already know. I just need one that will work without an app or the internet. I don't need a third-party remote computer for a CPAP to perform its function. Calibrate, attach mask, push button, breathe. No network or phone app needed for this to work.
Show threadAN/CRM-114Jun 2, 2024

@arclight @stacey_campbell getting a CPAP replaced in the US is like playing Dark Souls except
Instead of dying someone cancels your order on a new technicality and sends you back to the starting dungeon.

I got to tell an executive customer service rep at medical equipment company A “ I can’t strap your apology to my face and get a good night’s sleep” after jerking me around for months. Fingers crossed for company B

Show threadcurtosisJun 2, 2024

@flyingsaceur @arclight @stacey_campbell I spent dozens of hours a couple years back fighting UHC and Apria because even though Apria was in-network, Apria was not, and so a whole other deductible applied.

The careful reader will note that it’s incredibly difficult to tell the difference between the in-network and out-of-network companies. Here, I can help: one is Apria, LLC; the other is Apria, LLC. Still confused? Does it help to know they have the same EIN?

Yes, I am naming and shaming.

Show threadAN/CRM-114Jun 2, 2024

@curtosis @arclight @stacey_campbell
Yup that is Company A, if I’m not on Medicare I can drop dead

APRIA: Your insurance is not accepted at the office whose territory your home office is in
ME: Can a different office which accepts my insurance provide service?
APRIA: No. You may only get service from your local territory office

Show threadcurtosisJun 2, 2024
@flyingsaceur @arclight @stacey_campbell A former colleague (I was working on Medicare programs at the time) coined the phrase “the ongoing emergency that is the US healthcare system” and I’ve used it ever since.
Show threadAN/CRM-114Jun 3, 2024

@curtosis @arclight @stacey_campbell yeah it’s a giant sucking chest wound in the body politic shaped like a system.

Funny how it wasn’t that bad a problem until after the Cold War ended

Show threadStumpy The MuttJun 2, 2024
@arclight @stacey_campbell I ended up buying my CPAP online (ResMed made in Australia) with a prescription my PCP provided. My "insurance" company wanted me to rent a wifi enabled box so they could monitor its use - but then pretty much refused to pay for anything but a pittance. It cost about $800 for one with an SD card slot in case I need to share data with a neurologist. But well worth it - I sleep much better now.
Show threadBrialaJun 2, 2024
@stacey_campbell @arclight I ran into a different problem with CPAP. I had a machine for a while. Whilst they can make the machines almost (but not quite) silent, they haven't done the same research on the rest of the air circuit, specifically the masks. I explained this to the place when I returned it. Turbulence is noisy y'all.
Show threadMarkAtMicrochipJun 2, 2024
@arclight the whole CPAP chain gives me the creeps. In the US, health insurance companies will bill you for the machine if you don’t show minimal use. Your use is reported only through the embedded cell modem for the first 10 months. Almost all of the replicable pieces are chipped for identity and authentication. And I get emails from the manufacturer: “Are you sure you’re maintaining your equipment “ every time they detect a fault, but there’s no actionable information.
Show threadBill HookerJun 2, 2024
@MarkAtMicrochip @arclight It's ridiculous that a prescription is necessary, but it's not hard to get one. Then tell the predatory company to stuff it and buy a CPAP online. Get one that cannot connect to anything, and figure out for yourself how best to use it. I've been very pleased with my little ResMed, but initially my PCP hooked me up with a company that wanted to lease me a machine, monitor my usage, and have direct access to my bank account to sell me shit like filters. Oy vey.
Show threadarclightJun 2, 2024

@sennoma @MarkAtMicrochip Yeah, I'm not looking forward to the end of this process when I have to tell them to just give me the prescription so I can buy the thing outright with no strings, no service contract, no surveillance app, etc. I am lucky to be in a position to do so and having done this twice before, I know my options and their scams a lot better.

It's so stupid. The home sleep test gear itself seems great, but someone had to turn the app and website into a scummy ad/surveillance system. I've had a CPAP for at least a decade, I'm happy with my current one which is completely functional except for a recall due to the risk of the noise-deadening open cell polyurethane foam inside breaking free and getting blown into your airway. Great machine otherwise but this flaw has killed people so I'm not gambling with it anymore. I'm back dealing with the usurious Durable Medical Equipment system and preparing for a fight. It's irritating as hell.

Show threadskryJun 2, 2024
@arclight @sennoma @MarkAtMicrochip The bureaucracy of CPAP couldn’t prevent the quality and service issue that threatens your life, but they sure can prevent you from getting the care you need. Makes no sense.
Show threadMarkAtMicrochipJun 2, 2024
@arclight @sennoma after 10 months, the nanny CPAP became “mine”, but I haven’t tested the waters to see how far I can take it. I was able to buy an extra through the third party service that I “have” to buy the consumables from. It’s an inferior product, but it’s good enough. Another annoyance is that data goes direct to my Dr. “How are you sleeping?” Idk, you have the data, why don’t you tell me?
Show threadMarkAtMicrochipJun 2, 2024
@sennoma @arclight I got the same sales pitch, but had an insurance plan that covered it 100%. I still don’t know why they get access to my data.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJun 2, 2024

@arclight Back in the 1970s there was a computer science exam question which went something along the following lines:

"It is proposed to collect demographic information about people for use in marketing[#] by means of getting them to fill in a questionnaire for a computer dating system. Design an appropriate database."

This isn't new.

[#] In those days the marketing would have been done by junk snail mail, which cost money to send, so targeting was everything.

Show threadTim ReiersonJun 2, 2024
@arclight
No you can't get that because the sleep thing is a ruse to get your personal data pipeline connected for training "AI" and calibrating behavior manipulation algorithms personalized to you. [sarcasm mixed with more truth than we want to believe]
Show threadRichard_IpsumJun 3, 2024
@arclight
Show threadarclightJun 3, 2024
@Richard_Ipsum We live in a dystopia dreamt up by a hack writer hungover from a weekend of budget tequila.
Show threadRichard_IpsumJun 3, 2024
@arclight I am operating on little sleep and I have no idea what I meant to do when I responded. But your response is indeed accurate.
Show threadarclightJun 3, 2024
@Richard_Ipsum No worries. Too little sleep and general confusion is the norm around here :)