Minnesota Lung & Sleep Center

I got my original assessment for sleep apnea from MN Lung and Sleep about 12 years ago. The experience was fine and I got a CPAP machine. Since then, my experiences with CPAP division has been horrendous. Every time has been difficult and expensive. A couple of years ago, I was forced to schedule an appointment with Dr. Steele to get a new mask because they told me I needed a prescription to get one. (Since then, I’ve found out you really don’t need a prescription for accessories with most providers.) Anyway, I had my meeting with Dr. Steele and I have never experienced a more disinterested doctor. I could almost see him counting the money from the ridiculously expensive 5 minute appointment just to ask me if I still had sleep apnea. To the best of my knowledge, this condition does not generally go away so the question seemed ridiculous. I swore that I would never do business with MN Sleep or Dr. Steele again.
Earlier this week, my humidifier on my second CPAP died. (I had gotten the machine before my Dr. Steele experience.) It is not good to have a CPAP without humidity in the middle of the winter. I tried to go a couple of days without the humidity but it was literally burning out my sinuses. So, since I go the machine at MN Sleep, I thought that they would want to fix the issue and get me back up and running. I met with the nurse today and after telling me that I hadn’t been there for a while (of course I knew that) she said that they could do nothing without a prescription. That required me to get an appointment with a doctor which wasn’t going to happen for a couple of days. I needed to get the situation fixed today, so I left. They had no interest in working with me or trying to fix my problem. All they were interested in was getting me to another expensive appointment with a disinterested doctor.
I went to the good folks at Corner Medical in Bllomington. I have been buying masks there for a couple of years. I walked in with no appointment. TJ, a respiratory therapist, greeted me after about a 5 minute wait. He spent the next 90 minutes reviewing my options, getting me prices and finally getting a sale. I was able to work with the good folks at Fairview Eden Center (thanks, Tiffany) and get the prescription I needed to get a new machine, which was a better deal than trying to fix the old one. I bought a new mask and a slightly used CPAP machine that is the latest Respironics model for a fraction of the cost of a new unit. I walked out a very satisfied customer. The point is that they knew how difficult it can be to not have a working humidifier and were willing to do whatever it took, that was legal and medically appropriate, to get me back to a good night’s sleep. It was just the opposite of the experience I had at MN Lung and Sleep.
Do not go to MN Lung and Sleep Center. As other people mentioned, they are very poorly run and don’t seem to care at all about their patients. Also, their prices are ridiculous. I was offered a monthly rental of a machine for $ 180/​month at MN Lung and $ 100/​month at Corner Medical. I think those kinds of markups are typical. I have no interest in buying Dr. Steele or his colleagues another Mercedes, nor should you.
One final note. I understand from professionals inside the industry that most sleep doctors will prescribe a CPAP prescription for life (code 99, if I understand it correctly). MN Sleep prescribes you prescription for one year, so you have to come back for their unnecessary and expensive appointments. It is a SCAM.

Adding on to my previous review. I was being ‘hounded’ (meaning a phone call every day) by MN Lung & Sleep to order new equipment for my CPAP via their automated line. I finally did back in June, and as of August, I still hadn’t received my supplies. I know it’s tough getting them from their office to my place, as it’s only a three-​minute walk with a pirate peg leg in the snow. (That means I live so close to them, I could spit on their building. I’d prefer to do something else, and it rhymes with ‘shoe’.)
Today I called them and I was told that in order for me to get my new ‘surprise’ (the lady could not say supplies, and I’m not making any racial slur here as English was her first language), I would have to see a doctor. I told her it would have been nice if I had been told this sooner instead of waiting around. The earliest I can get an appointment is in September.
Thank goodness this isn’t a life-​and-​death situation, but seriously. How can a medical facility be this inept? If anyone knows where to complain about medical businesses, I’d love to know. I’m sure Mark T. would agree with me. Read his review.

I have never in my life experienced customer service like I received at the France Avenue offices of the Minnesota Lung & Sleep Center. Dr. Steele himself was pleasant enough, but the rest of his staff were the most unprofessional, ill-​tempered and rude bunch of folks I have ever encountered in anything resembling a medical facility. Every trip I made here was unpleasant, but in the interest of saving time, I will only expound upon yesterday’s visit.
My experience was very similar to Tim S.: being bounced around between a nastily-​dispositioned LPN named Paul and the equally foul sales manager, all of them (it seems) highly trained in the art of being as offensive as possible. On my previous visit, I was halfheartedly sold a new mask for my sleep disorder, as the previous one had issues. The office did not have (nor were they willing to secure) the necessary replacement face cushion that I had been easily able to purchase at a sleep center while on vacation in New Orleans (these wear out frequently, which nobody there will tell you). This pretty much forced me to choose a different, $ 300+ mask from the wall. I was told that I could return it within 30 days if unsatisfied with its performance. When I got home, I couldn’t hook up the mask because these incompetent fools didn’t provide me with the right-​sized tube to connect to the CPAP machine. The next day I flew to New Orleans, and was so upset by the experience that I forgot to pack a crucial portion of my old CPAP apparatus, resulting in a 10-​day situation where I had no machine and got little sleep. Upon returning, I brought the unused mask back to Minnesota Lung & Sleep Center. Imagine my joy when my bff Paul came striding down the aisle, ushered me in the office, and after leaving the room with the mask returned telling me that they WOULDN“T TAKE BACK THE MASK (which was unused) because it was OUT OF THE BOX. All of the parts for the packaging were returned; I simply threw everything into the bag they gave me and brought it back. This was in direct conflict with what they told me they would do, otherwise I would never have agreed to buy the mask. The bill had already been presented to my insurance company, even though they told me that they wouldn’t present the bill for 30 days and they were sure I was happy with the product! He then rudely told me to keep the unusable mask, but that they were willing to supply another to me without further cost. By this point, I wanted no more to do with these scam artists, and I said that I wanted to secure my next mask from another company. This enraged Paul («oh, you want to go to ANOTHER COMPANY, do you?»), and soon I had a business manager in the office telling me that Paul should never have told me that I could return the mask — in other words, they were unwilling to stand behind what he had said. Appalled, I eventually left, but not before leaving them with the remark that this was «the worst {flippin’} customer service that I had ever encountered. To add insult to injury, the manager threatened me that if I didn’t pay for the mask that I would hear from their lawyers! The whole place feels like NOTHING LESS THAN A SCAM, and I would urge ANYBODY to never, ever consider this facility, unless their idea of customer service is to be insulted, lied to, and treated like your sleeping disorder was nothing more than an inconvenience for them and their money-​making operation.