Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/31373
A former commercial airline pilot, Mike Bartruff turned to trucking after an unsuccessful business venture with his son. He signed on with Prime Inc. in Missouri, whose Orion Healthcare clinic on-site at the main Springfield terminal oversees its med- ical program. The carrier required a sleep test after an initial screening showed Bartruff had a Body Mass Index measurement above 39. Orion’s Dr. John Abraham says, “We look at neck size, at their airway and how open that is. If it’s really closed off, they’ll be at risk as well.” In addition, multiple health problems, from dia- betes to heart attacks, strokes and high blood pres- sure, might suggest that sleep apnea could be pres- ent as a contributing factor. In Bartruff’s case, a sleep study confirmed diag- nosis of sleep apnea. His treatment includes nightly use of a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. His overall cost was $1,900, though costs can certainly run higher that that. The sleep test, says Dr. Rush, “for a private patient is generally in the $1,300 to $2,000 range in many clinics and can go even higher in a hospital setting. We generally charge the cash-paying trucker around $900.” Driver Ed Webb, with Prime Hauling of Indiana, paid just $240 for his first CPAP. “I was fortunate enough to get on my employer’s insurance,” he says, “so it was only a $30-$40 copay” for the sleep test itself. Out-of-pocket it would have been $3,500, he says. Webb is one of many drivers who’ve found themselves feeling “like a lab rat on a treadmill,” he says, in the medical-certification area of late, with the state directly involved in his sleep apnea treat- ment. His history with the condition starts during a five-month period when he was out of work, during which his girlfriend recommended he be tested for sleep apnea. Tested, he then found a machine on Craigslist and got it, but without a full-face mask at additional cost he was unable to get it to work for him effectively initially. Meanwhile, he went back to trucking with Prime Hauling. Shortly thereafter, in November of 2009 he was awakened from a rest-area nap by an Indiana state trooper who got things off to a bad start in the stop APNEA TREATMENT BENEFITS Since beginning apnea treatment, Prime Inc.-leased driver Mike Bartruff has lost 35 pounds, down from 270, in a few short months, “and my blood pressure’s getting better,” he says. “I’m on a one-year renewal of my medical card for now, because I had high blood pressure and I was on medication for it, but because of the CPAP and what I’ve been doing, I don’t see that being a fac- tor in my next physical.” Bartruff reports sleeping better since he’s grown accustomed to the device. “I’ve got more energy throughout the day. I walk every day, 35-45 minutes at a time.” Driver Ed Webb says CPAP treatment has changed his life, echoing other sleep-apnea sufferers whose common refrain is that getting effective, rest- ful sleep boosted their day- time energy levels greatly. “When I had my sleep test done, I could tell the differ- ence right off the bat,” he says. “The next day I felt like superman. I just felt great.” For a video talk with Webb, visit www.truckersnews.com. Ed Webb + by telling Webb he was snoring so loudly he was “shaking the truck.” The officer then began to go through the motions of a driver inspection, during which he did something out of the ordinary. The trooper pulled out a PDA and showed Webb a series of questions, asking him if he was willing to “par- ticipate in a survey, and I declined it,” Webb says. “By then the warning signs were going off.” He’d heard of the Minnesota fatigue checklist, a version of which Indiana was using at the time. The Min- nesota list was deemed to have violated truckers’ privacy rights when a court in February this year returned a verdict against the state. Webb was nonetheless issued an “ill/fatigued During your routine DOT physical, physicians should be screening for sleep apnea. Different physicians have different screening criteria, as do different trucking companies, such as a certain body mass index (BMI) measurement, THE SECOND OPINION ON SLEEP APNEA documents. neck size and the pres- ence of other conditions. Considering the potential cost, getting a second opinion about whether a sleep study is needed in your case is legal and may be appropriate. But, notes Orion’s Dr. John Abraham, “once you’ve had a sleep study that shows you have sleep apnea, there’s not a lot of gray area there.” Failure to indicate that you’ve tested positive, as it were, on your medical long form would constitute falsifying From drivers to industry observers, many suggest the health-care industry is “jumping in with both feet” to diagnose and treat the disorder, as owner-operator Bob Harper, leased to Dana Transport, puts it. Transport safety con- sultant Rick Gobbell says, “Some of these doctors currently doing medical examinations — they’ve got a lot of them referring drivers to sleep doc- tors, seeing a new cash opportunity.” JUNE 2011 TRUCKERS NEWS 17 TODD DILLS