In December 2025, when my uncle was being discharged from rehab, the rehab facility sent AdaptHealth a prescription for a commode to be delivered to my uncle’s apartment, because they felt using a commode would be safer for my uncle than using the toilet.
AdaptHealth called my uncle about the prescription, and that call was forwarded to me since my uncle was still in the hospital. They said on the call that the insurance company denied the request for a commode because my uncle already had one. I told them the commode he already had was broken and needed to be repaired. They said I should call them back after he got out of the hospital and they would send out a technician to fix it.
After my uncle was discharged I followed their instructions and called them to request a repair. This time they said they couldn’t do it (why did they tell me earlier in the month that they could?) and I needed to call the insurance company.
I called the insurance company and they said AdaptHealth had to submit a repair request to the insurance company for approval (why didn’t AdaptHealth, which literally does this stuff every day as their primary line of business, know that?).
I called AdaptHealth back again and this time they said that as a “courtesy” they would send someone out the next day to replace the commode. They even gave me a delivery window.
After that day came and went I asked my uncle on the phone if the commode had been replaced, and he gave me one of his vague, “Maybe, I don’t know, I think probably,” answers. I figured that, when combined with the very specific delivery time provided to me by AdaptHealth, was good enough, so I crossed this item off of my to-do list. [Narrator: this was a mistake.]
Today, over eight months later, my uncle’s personal care aide called and asked me to find out about getting my uncle a new commode since his old one was broken. I said wait a minute, that broken commode was supposed to be replaced long ago. Are you sure there isn’t another one somewhere around the apartment? She said no, there wasn’t.
So, of course, I had to call back AdaptHealth.
I spoke to a woman who was obviously in an offshore call center, with spotty audio with several seconds of lag (fun!). She checked and confirmed that yes, there had been an order put in to do a “courtesy replacement” of my uncle’s commode on December 31, 2025, and that the replacement in fact never happened due to an unspecified “error” made by AdaptHealth.
I asked, now that this problem has been identified, can we reschedule a replacement? Nope, she said, we can’t do that, the commode is not eligible for replacement. But it was eligible for replacement in December, I said, and that replacement never happened? Nope, doesn’t matter, she said, no replacement without a new prescription.
I said, but there already was a new prescription, sent to you in December of last year, that you never filled! I can’t get a new prescription from a rehab facility my uncle was discharged from eight months ago!
She said she was going to “add a note to my uncle’s account” which would be “escalated to higher-ups” and someone would call me back soon.
I’m not holding my breath.
Why are all these medical equipment suppliers so terrible? [previously], [previously], [previously]
