Lincare Holdings
reviews and complaints

I don't know what your situation is (liquid or concentrator with cylinders). One thing I can say though from most complaints that I have read are that patients do not want to take responsability for their health issues. Lincare is not EMT they are oxygen equipment providers. If you know you are running low on oxygen give proper notice if it is not your delivery day. Lincare drivers service a wide area and it is nothing for us to put 300 miles on a van each day. That being said, it is hard for drivers to be at one place @ a requested time. You have no idea how mistreated the drivers are and all we try to do is make the patients happy. I love meeting new people @ set ups and making a difference in their lives but that is starting to be the last priority for managemnet. Your driver may be 5 minutes from your house and have the office call them with a new oxygen set up or portable to a hospital that is 50 miles the other direction. @ that time the driver has to stop everything and go do it. Lincare's rule is 2, 2, 2 which means - 2 rings and the phone must be answered, 2 minutes to take an order and set up within 2 hours. All it does is put off our existing patients and makes them upset. We don't like it either, so please go easy on your drivers because they are underpaid and they really do like you. You can't survive on this job without a heart for it. Just so you know, when we are on call, we can't go anywhere or do anything but yet we are not getting paid either. We do on call 1 week @ a time here so that is a whole week that you can't plan anything at all. The ony time we get paid is if we go out on a service call. Also, we are so understaffed that even if your not on call your lucky to get off by 7pm and that is normally because you were able to put some people or paperwork off. My biggest problem is that even though we are paid lower class wages, I like my patients so much that I overlook how much I have come to hate this company. If you are willing to take on new tasks and learn other jobs they will run you into the ground then bless you with a 3% raise every 2 years! Anyone who states anything otherwise is probably one of the corp. suck-ups that have ran this thing into the ground!

Call the office to get the AREA Manager's name and # - speak with them about this issue. If that doesn't work - call the corp office in Clearwater, FL and that may get something going. Although LinCare wants to grow their business, they most certainly do not want to lose it. Your doctor calling the company can also help in getting action for you as well. Oxygn patients as well as Neb med patients seem to be priority for this company.

You really need to contact LinCare corp office to report this HIPPA violation. You can also check to see where else you can report this very flagrant HIPPA violation and the company could be fined for this breach and lost of your medical and personal information. With all the identity thefts going on, this is very serious.

The supplies are not necessarily being shipped from the branch office but from a company they have calling and sending / shipping out the supplies. Call the branch or call the corp office in Clearwater, FL. and ask for the CPAP call que # - tell them you need to change your shipping addrress with them. LinCare has several different divisions / companies that they have doing these things for them... so it may not be LinCare that is actually at fault but a CSR at the CPAP call que (company handling their CPAP patients' supplies and call backs or f/u's needed) they didn't change the address for shipment to be corrected...

Jerald Barron US Navy Veteran July 11, 2019
My wife and I are disabled and on limited income from the Government.
I have Emphazema, COPD, Psoriatic Arthritis, low immune system & have had triple bypass heart surgery and aorta Anurisum repair surgery.
My wife also has Fibromyalgia, & RA.
We have been with Lincare about 8 years and we have received services of oxygen, CPAP supplies & oxygen concentrator and portable oxygen units which had to be replaced several times due to failures.
During this time my wife has sent in 6 forms for low income financial assistance from Lincare because we only have Medicare.
We have been sent high bills from Lincare trying to get us to pay for what medicare has already paid for.
The last time my portable Oxygen Concentrator quit working was about 6 months ago and Lincare came and picked up my portable machine .
When my wife called to inquire about my machine she was told by Lincare employee Matt that we could not have my portable unit back until we paid our bill in full over $ 650.00 for past due bill.
They have also sent $ 900.00 bill they say is for my wife's CPAP supplies.
At that time she asked about the financial assistance forms and was told they have no record of any forms she has sent in.
Lincare is holding my portable oxygen unit hostage that a Physician prescribed for me to be able to go out of the house and enjoy life with my wife. This should be illegal. Medicare paid for that portable machine and several others.
They say they have financial assistance yet six times we applied and they "cant find the forms".

I got rid of Linecare for my oxygen supples and went with a different company, that was back in July of this year...here it is October and they still haven't picked up their equipment...I have called them twice I won't call again.Their stuff is in my garage and will soon be moved to the street! Linecare office in Urbandale Iowa needs to get on the ball and get their equipment out of my garage!

I have had similar negative experience obtaining supplies for my cpap machine, and when my supplies wear out, it is very difficult to sleep properly. Although it is not immediately life threatening, the whole reason to cope with this uncomfortable head gear is to prevent heart damage which ultimately is life threatening. I am not on Medicare, but I have good private insurance, and I have always paid my co-pay. Lincare has confirmed several times that I am eligible for certain supplies monthly, quarterly and semi-annually. But in the six months since I first completed paperwork (and there was a lot of paperwork presented to me on two or three occasions when I went to their Queensbury office trying to resolve this), I have only received one call from the supply center, even though they are supposed to call me monthly. At the beginning, I called the supply center, but they told me I had to speak with the Queensbury office. The Queensbury office has always been pleasant (the nurses are terrific), but they tell me that the delivery system is up to the supply center. The last time I had difficulty, the Queensbury office called the supply center on my behalf and 7 days later I am still waiting for the supplies that would have been delivered three weeks ago if their monthly system had not failed. The Queensbury office acknowledged that there have been problems with the supply system, blaming it on the complicated process and approvals required. I can understand that if the insurance companies are refusing payment, but I have been more than compliant with the usage rules and my insurance company has not refused coverage. The problem appears to lie with Lincare's supply delivery system and corporate management should be looking into this.

Well I'm a Lincare employee and I can assure you that at least in my office we do everything we can to help our patients. Some people are just inpatient and don't want to wait. I also understand that depending on the situation there is time that it should not wait but, there is also times when is not an emergency but people want it done right away. People need to understand that there is a process for everything and rules and procedures to follow. Not every case is the same and there is different positions to ask for when nothing is being done to help a patient. A caller will first talk to a Costumer Service Rep (CSR), if you can not get what you need from them you should ask for a manager, if unable to or they denied you to speak to them ask for their area manager and last but not least you may also ask for the phone number to our corporate office located in Clearwater Florida.

oxygen is lighter than air so it accumulates at the ceiling but
there is a hole in the ceiling so it would go on up into the
attic space. That would be a serious fire hazard so how can
I get it cleaned out ?

see the text abovee

It is difficulat at best to deal with seriously ill patients, but this manager is right. Details are missing and they are running a business. Without payments and reimbursement they cannot provide service. That said, there is no reason not to respond even if with a negative response. The root of this issue seems to be one of the patient treating this supplier as some sort of social service agency, assuming service will be provided without proper payment, documentation and reimbursement. No business can operate profitably that way.
To ALL patients not happy with their supplier, get all the details first before you assume the supplier is wrong. Missing a delivery or delaying repairs often can be controlled by the patient being more vigilant and assisting the supplier with good information. Working together will always get better results.

I have experienced poor customer service from Lincare on numerous occasions, especially when I scheduled oxygen delivery when I travel. Last September when I flew to Washington state, I requested oxygen( concentrator and tanks) delivery the required two weeks in advance. My family member was unable to bring a supply of oxygen to the airport for me. This year when I have traveled to Texas, Waco and San Antonio, my oxygen has not been at my destination when I arrived. I am considering some type of legal recourse and have begun to document each incident. I want to hear experiences of others since this seem to be a widespread problem.
3303@comcast.net

I'm a Lincare center manager, and I'm a little frustrated by the complaints and misrepresentations that I've found here. Regarding the complaint shown above, the patient doesn't make clear what his life threatening condition is, so I can't tell if the "breathing machine" that he's referring to is a nebulizer, cpap machine, or oxygen concentrator. Knowing which it is would be helpful because insurance companies and Medicare are VERY particular about what conditions a person must have in order to cover (i.e. pay Lincare for) any of these units. This person may have been given a piece of equipment that his insurer declined coverage on, meaning Lincare didn't get paid. That means that the patient would have been responsible for paying for the unit himself or returning it. He obviously believes that he needs the "breathing machine" and wants to continue using it. Did he keep it but refuse to pay his portion of the bill (his co-pay)? Was he unable to pay for it? He stated that he filled out a form that they sent him home with, three times! If they gave him a form to fill out, there was a good reason for it. It could have been a hardship form. Patients who have no insurance or who can't afford their co-pays can fill one out to provide evidence of their inability to pay. Because Lincare deals with Medicare, it can't legally waive a patient's portion of a bill without having researched whether the patient, in fact, can't afford to pay for an item. I can tell you from experience that patients will often fill out this form but provide insufficient detail for Lincare to justifiably waive the patient's bill, so it could go back to the patient for more detail. Or the form will reveal that the patient COULD pay for the item but is choosing not to (cable t.v., internet, or some other luxury gets paid instead of Lincare who is providing the "life saving" device). In the 2nd scenario, Lincare will justifiably deny the waiver and will ask the patient to pay their co-pay. So, was it hardship form this person filled out? If so, did he not provide sufficient info for Lincare to support waiving his bill? Did it show that he could pay his bill? We don't know. Another possibility that this patient was prescribed a cpap device for sleep apnea. Many patients will call that a "breathing machine." Insurance guidelines for the prescribing of this equipment have been tightened severely in the past year or so (tightened exponentially if the patient is a Medicare patient). So, let's say a doctor prescribes a unit for a patient and the patient is insured by Medicare and gets set up with the unit. If the patient doesn't use the equipment enough in the 3 months following the set up, Medicare will stop paying for the unit. I've had it happen where the patient didn't use the equipment enough to satisfy Medicare's requirements, so Medicare stopped paying for the equipment. The patient was then faced with a choice, return the equipment or start paying for it himself. The patient didn't want to return the unit, but didn't want to pay for it either... Anyway, it's late and I've responded to 2 of these complaints that I thought were unfair. I need to call it a night, so let me end with saying that there are 2 sides to every story; and Lincare is not in the business of making ANY patient call 10 times or drive an hour out of their way just to get service. There have to be some important details missing from this patient's complaint. If we knew more, I'm sure that we would find a very good reason as to why this person is playing a waiting game.

Why should they treat their employees any better than patients? Unless you are Brenda from Modesto, Ca she is busy letting docs grab her breasts and doing meth!

their legal dept is going to open the door to 500 thous $ of litigation/u should know about how they watch the bottom line//after all, we work for a publicly-traded company, don't we?...we can stay, or go...it's the Capitalist way, signed, Sr Serv Rep

As a matter of fact, I didn't sign anything for that. I think we got screwed on that deal. FYI, almost 2 years, and still making my starting wage of $11.00. Ha Ha, 3 new hires are making more than me..LOL

No one remembers signing anything. I dont believe there was anything to sign.They figure they can do what they want when they want to their employees.They over work you and most definitely under pay you.I live in NYS and with the company for 3 yrs, only making $9.81 an hour. I believe Phil Phines and Paul Gabos need to come and work in and RBCO or Center for a week and see how bad and mistreated the employees are treated.

The 36 month cap does not apply to liquid oxygen. There is no reason they should not take you besides the fact they don't care...

You can thank Medicare for Lincare's denial in accepting you as a new patient as all third party insurance companies follow guidelines set forth by Medicare. Medicare now pays only for 36 months rental of oxygen every 5 years. So if your in your 30th month or so, the new company would only be paid for 6 months of rental but they would have to continue to serve you for the remainer of the 5 year rental period (frmo the first time you received oxygen). Lincare would not make any money so they denied you. Since Medicare continues to drop payment to suppliers for medical equipment, you will see less and less services. For example, only getting refills once a month instead of weekly or less servicing on your machine. It's sad to say, but Medicare has now screwed the working people.

I am with you. I am a driver for Lincare and we are located in an area that gets heavy snowfall. This crazy company will not get us vehicles that can get through the weather but expect us to put our lives @ risk for $12 an hour. We love our patients but also want to make it home to our families as well. We can't even get snow tires on our 2 wheel drive vans?

@ lookinforanewjob, first off, your name says it all and second, how does sister companies get your patients information in order to represent you?

We don't, other sister companies call our patient's representing themselves as Lincare!

A manager - did you READ? One problem I personally comprehended, which I see you don't, is that this Larry guy was demanding cash...no check or credit card. Period. Why? That sounds a way shady to me...this patient seemed a tad nicer than me, as I would've told Larry to bugger off. (just in case you don't know, that's the British form of saying 'f*** off'. Cash only? REALLY? Again, I ask WHY? I do understand the office not being able to quote a price, as there was no telling what was wrong with it, thus no way to determine the cost at that time. Also, I question whether the office bothered to explain things to the patient. Patients do not always know/understand the issue regarding repairs. Did anyone bother to try to educate the patient on the issues regarding sending off to the manufacturer? Much less the warranty issue? Is it not Lincare's JOB to pass relevant information on to their patients? While any normal person understands that machines break, why would Lincare be in the business of selling machines without some kind of contingency plan on how to fix it, and to be ready to explain things to patients from the get go? You guys MUST work with these patients and give them options, including what to do, even if the machine is no longer in warranty. Why do you have a problem with explaining these things to patients? Open and honest communication is the key...not just standing there demanding cash for shipping. I'm a former employee of this pathetic company, and trust me when I say I know a gazillion MD's who are no longer referring business to the area I live in due to this type of bad business practice. And before you say I'm just a disgruntled ex employee, know this: 1. I left of my own accord HAPPILY - I was doing cartwheels in the parking lot to my car the day I decided to leave. 2. Within DAYS, I went to work at a hospital close by my house, and am extremely happy. Just know that one bad word about a company carries a helluva lot more weight than 100 GOOD words. Why do you think so many doctors are refusing to work with us? They're getting it.

As a Lincare manager, for one, your attitude and tone show such negative customer service, who would want to deal with your company. Not only did I end up going to the local office to pick up my VPAP machine so that I would be able to use it sooner than later, I had no followup what so ever, not even a phone call to see how I was making out. Only a complaint to your corporate offices to the district manager was I actually contacted. The local manager was nasty and to this day I have never had anyone followup. I have been billed for supplies that I was told were not covered by the insurance company and then I receive and EOB from the insurance company listing a higher charge for the same piece of equipment. I had to keep calling to get my money back from your company. Then two months after I picked up my machine I received a letter and envelope in the mail to send my memory card to them so that they could report to the insurance carrier. Did I ever receive it back? No, so I have been using this machine for a year, no followup, no memory card to collect the data and they bill my new insurance company for not only a new machine but me being a new patient. Not only has your company been paid over what the cost is for the very expensive machine I utilize between insurance payments and my payments, you expect me to continue rental on the machine! I was told by the so wonderful (ha! ha!) representative that after 10 months I would own the machine outright...It's pretty funny how you blame the patient, when your company completely shows why our health care system is in the mess it's in. I feel sorry for the elderly who do not have the energy and/or sometimes the where with all to understand and stand up for their rights. Your company is the worst company I have ever dealt with and I will never ever work with you again. It's pretty sad when your corporate office doesn't even respond to a complaint. (and yes I sent paperwork to back up my statements) and yes I have kept every EOB sent to me from both insurance carriers. I also don't order anything through your company since you charge the insurance carrier over twice what it's worth, when it can be purchased through cpap.com for half the price and it actually gets delivered. Go merit your customer service and business practices where you won't do so much harm to people.

As a Lincare center manager (No, I'm not Larry), this complaint bothers me because it badly misrepresents a common repair scenario. 1st, the patient complains that when he brought in his broken bi-pap they were all too busy to properly check it, so he was forced to leave it. My impression is that he dropped in on the center and no one at Lincare knew he was coming. The problem is that Lincare is a home (emphasis on HOME) respiratory company, meaning that on any given day almost all employees except customer service are at patients' HOMES, providing patients the services they've requested. The few left in the office can frequently be quite busy. 2nd, neither customer service staff nor managers are certified repair technicians, so the unit couldn't be "thoroughly checked." 3rd, if the unit was 3 years old, it was owned by the patient and no longer under warranty by the manufacturer. Bi-paps are medical devices . To ensure they're repaired properly, the manufacturer or an authorized repair facility must do the repair. Lincare centers are neither. This patient's unit would have had to be sent out to be "thoroughly checked" before repair. If the patient wanted the center to ship it out for repair, then he should have expected to pay for the shipping. Since the repair facility hadn't even had a chance to inspect it yet, they obviously couldn't give him an estimate for the repair. PLUS, insurance companies may replace units that have been "broken beyond repair, " but they rely on the MANUFACTURER'S inspection to determine whether the unit is broken to that degree. The insurance company isn't just going to take Lincare's word for it. As far as Larry telling him that he couldn't store his machine at his center, Lincare's adhere to strict standards for their accreditation and can be inspected at any time. If an inspector walks in, ALL equipment in the center has to either be clean, bagged, and tagged ready to go to a patient; or it has to be in a designated cleaning area under brown bags indicating that it is dirty. There is no area in a Lincare center that inspectors accept as a designated storage area for broken patient-owned equipment. In short, this patient appears to have wanted this center to be able to repair his unit on-the-spot during is unscheduled visit, possibly at no cost to him. With the unit out of warranty, it was going to have to to out for inspection to get a repair quote, and that was going to take time. In short, this patient seems to have made no effort to understand the basic repair process. I believe he/she has mis-represented Lincare because not only was this issue more about the failure of the patient to understand the issue than it was about Lincare failing the patient in any way; but this same scenario would have played out the same way whether the patient was with Lincare or any of Lincare's competitors. This patient complaint against Lincare is without merit.