American HomePatient, Austin TX

I've had a very good experience these folks they've been courteous nice and helpful every time I speak what have any questions I've always been nice and able to answer them.

A correction for my previous positive report. After 2 years I am amazed that this place can keep the door open. It is rare to find such poor customer service along with total inefficiency. Avoid this company and save yourself the frustration of dealing with them in person or via phone.
Sharon Bishop

If you depend on your CPAP equipment, make funeral prearrangements first. If this company could get a Minus 10, they barely deserve that. They do not return calls. They provide the wrong equipment. They do not handle insurance promptly or precisely. There is no reason this should be the provider for medicare. This office is totally out of control.

I have struggled with American Homepatient for the past six months, and have finally reached the limits of my patience. In the beginning, it took nearly a full month of phone calls with them and my doctor to get things straightened out. They kept messing up my insurance information over and over, claiming to have contacted them and finding I was terminated. I even 3-way called the insurance company with their rep on the line confirming my coverage, and they still distrusted me. Next, my insurance called them directly, and they distrusted them as being a fraud. It took a completely NEW prescription from my doctor and the correct insurance information to get the ball rolling. Then, I have been repeatedly unable to get replacement supplies ever since. I'm done with them. I wish I had looked for reviews prior to having my doctor send a script.

I have just been diagnosed with sleep apnea and have been prescribed a cpap machine and the insurance company wants me to use American Home Patient. So that’s who I’m using. When I start paying out of pocket I’ll change companies.

I’m gonna be generous and give one star because the ladies in the front office are nice and professional. And I can’t remember the last negative review I’ve left for a company and don’t know that I’ve ever left one. But if you can avoid this company, do. I had no choice in the matter if I wanted insurance to pay and I do. Especially since I met my deductible in April.

First clinician I met gave me the nose mask to try first since I have a beard. She’s been doing this so long she could tell I “was a medium when I walked in the door. Door”. This will come into play later. The nose mask leaked so I set an appointment to try something else.

This is clinician #2 and she’s younger but really didn’t care much about what I wanted to try, she had her own ideas. I had done some research by this time, which we all do. Especially since smart phones make it so easy. And I had decided the Air Pillows looked like the best choice for me since I have a full beard. She thought this mask that fit under the nose would work better. In hindsight, I should have said no but these people are the “professionals”, right? She didn’t offer to hook it up so I could try it and being new to this I didn’t bring my machine. Well, this damn thing didn’t even try to seal!

Appointment #3 has me back with the clinician I had at the beginning. She seemed irritated for some reason that I was even there. And she made sure to point out in a not so pleasant or professional manner that the insurance company will only pay for three fittings so I can’t just keep On making appointment after appointment to try different masks. I didn’t bother to tell her that they’d pay for as many as I needed since I’d met my deductible. By this time I just wanted to get fitted and out of there.

Well, remember when I said something would come into play later? OK, Here we go. I brought my machine with me this time, having learned my lesson on the last visit, and I set it up and she brings in an already opened package with my new mask in it. Now, in fairness, she could have opened it in the other room before she brought it into the room we were using, but I have my doubts. Reason being, the mask was already fitted with the medium pillows attached. So she shows me how to put it on and I put it on. We left it on me and running the next five minutes and it sealed well and seemed to work wonderfully well.

She had a form to fill out on the return and the new mask which she filled out while I’m testing the new mask. All the while repeating that I’m a medium and in all of her years experience she could guess sizes from across a room. And she can tell I’m a medium and went on to emphasize that I’ll never need a large and as I was removing the mask to put it away she said one last time, “no, you’ll never wear a large”. I loaded up my new mask along with my machine and thank her and the ladies up front.

Gotta shorten this as I went above my limit.
I wore the mask and it fit but popped off. Inspecting it the next day I could see a factory defect. So I super glued it together and ordered a new one online from a different company because I’d rather pay than set foot in that office again. I suspect the open package was a return and she pawned it off on me out of spite. She was angry about something. I suspect her ego got bruised when I returned what she gave me. Or maybe it was because I complained about her not returning calls when I set this appointment, I don’t know. But I’ve never had worse service in my life. Not ever.

Customer service is worse than non-existent. I am not surprised that getting a new CPAP requires a bit of trial and error. But they have succeeded in getting my order wrong 100% of the time and even argued with me when i called to get it straight. I need a large head band and a small pillow. They have yet to get it right. I will do without a CPAP before i deal with them again.

Ever since I started service with that company I had countless billing errors. I had to call every time I got an invoice because they either double charged me and/or because they never fixed the previous issue. I’ve no longer continued service with them as of Aug 17’ and they are still sending me products which in return they keep charging me. I’ve called 3 separate times to remind them that I have canceled service and to remove me from the automatic reorder list.

If my insurance allowed me to choose a provider for health care equipment I would not use AHP at all. The Respiratory Therapist gave me wrong information. The Branch Manager was stubborn, argumentative. The whole experience with the Austin branch has been a frustrating fiasco. AHP will take my money but do as little as they can to deliver the patient and customer care that they should provide. The Corporate Customer service ordering Dept, however, has been wonderful. They are the only reason AHP merited even two stars.

Horrible. Gave me wrong information regarding Medicare requirements for my equipment. Help line put me on hold for 25 minutes, then agent was curt and sullen. Sent me a letter with no time frames for when they answer the phone. I'm planning to ask my doctor to use another provider.

I have done business with this company for 3 years and they always impress me. They call me for reminders and set up shipment that come quickly. I will stand by them

We requested to get oxygen tanks deliveries (set up on a route) to find out there was issue with documentation as a result of our transfer to this area. First attempt when we moved the patient to Austin we visited the local office in person to exchange tanks and set up a route plan, delivery was to occur the following week - no calls, nothing.
Second call to the local office got us delivery date, two days after no deliveries or contact we talked to central dispatcher to find out there is a lack of required documents.

I'm certain these issues will be resolved as we are the care giver and patient advocates - we were expecting service and not to determine by discovery they are pending documentation. After all it is only medical gas.

If you need help with CPAP, go here. Led by a competent, professional manager, this friendly team will work with you and your doctor until all are satisfied that you have the best equipment to fit your needs. Setup, education and follow-up have been very good. Glad my doctor recommended them.

Horrible service. The one star I give them is being real kind to them. My doctor could not get hold of them to get a report so my husband went up to their Braker Lane Office with the cpap maching for them to do a reading. They did give him two reports (one for us and one for the doctor). The next time they came and took my SD card to read and said they would send it back in the mail. That has been 6 weeks ago and I am still waiting for the SD card. I have tried to call them about the SD card and also to send my doctor an report. I have been on hold well over and half hr. I have been in the office on Braker Ln and that office is not busy to keep a person on hold for that long.

Their local office is really good and I hate to see them brushed with a bad review.

Their main office where they handle billing is horrible. I have been trying to get them to properly bill my insurance company for oxygen. They have missed the mark 7 straight months and I call them about every 3-4 weeks. I get nice folks on the line but the company can't seem to get my insurance company what they need to pay the claim.

Again, friendly customer service at the home office, but horrible follow-up with the task of getting paid. I am about ready to change DME providers.

Terrible.
I have been waiting months to get a simple mask. First they asked more questions that I was even comfortable asking, even wanting my prescription of 16 months ago, that I never even saw. THEN I was told I had to go to the prescribing doctor for a new prescription, which took another couple of weeks.

Then weeks to get an appointment at the local Austin office, and when I did, on July 16, the mask was not even ordered. After 2 weeks, I called the toll free number, and was told that the mask was not ordered, but they would get in touch with my therapist, who could tell them what mask. After many calls from me and the home office and message after message left, I did get a call back from Lorilee? Who obviously had no idea who I was or what I wanted. She put me back in touch with the supplier who is in Tennessee, I think.

Then I was left to figure out what mask I needed, as she did not tell me or the supplier, and did not note the file. I ordered what I THOUGHT was right, from the brief description could find online. It was the wrong one, delivered on July 3rd. So no contact was even possible until July 7th. I called, then was told that the file had finally been noted, and was told to leave the wrong one on my doorstep and it would be picked up by UPS by Tuesday the 8th. They promised that the correct mask was already on order.

UPS picked up the wrong one sometime yesterday, Thursday, not Tuesday.
I am still waiting for the correct one. Apparently it takes 17 or so days to deliver from Tennessee to Texas, by UPS again.
I am still impatiently waiting, as the old mask is leaking, and I am lucky to sleep 3 hours a night.

My advice is to find another local office, and not one from American Home Patient, there are options in the area.