The manufacturer of MATRx plus, an at-home sleep theragnostic system that predicts therapeutic outcomes with a custom-fitted oral appliance, is partnering with two billing service providers in the US – Cross Over Dental Enterprises (CODE) and Pristine Medical Billing to offer out-of-network dental clinics medical billing services for oral appliances for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

The decision comes after the manufacturer, Zephyr, identified medical insurance reimbursement as a common key consideration in a patient’s decision to move forward with testing and treatment of OSA.

“Many of the doctors using our MATRx plus home sleep study/ diagnostic therapy system have asked about medical billing.  As this is outside of our area of expertise, we’re more than happy to bring in the experts. Our partners and advisors tell us that CODE and Pristine are those experts,” Paul Cataford, chief executive officer at Zephyr, says in a statement.

The MATRx plus system is an FDA-approved tablet-based, cloud-connected medical device. The device is also known as “The Simple Sleep Solution,” a platform which is designed to streamline workflow and eliminate oral appliance rework. The

There was a rumor circulating that Apple has been working on a new smartwatch sleep tracking app, but so far the company has not released any new apps to tackle the big problem of sleep, reports CNBC.

With a new sleep-tracking app, the technology giant would have followed Fitbit and others. Apple has never been obsessed with being first. Its marketing is always about being better than others. But even better won’t be good enough to solve the sleep crisis.

Bad sleep is a trillion-dollar health-care problem that impacts the mood, well-being and overall health of more than a third of the world’s population. Eighty percent of poor sleep remains undiagnosed and untreated. This is in part due to the cost of diagnosis and not having enough trained experts to deliver adapted treatments.

Disrupted sleep matters, and there is a pressing need for someone, whether Apple or another enterprise, to technologically scale sleep health. But another tracker from Silicon Valley is not likely to be a game changer.

Get the full story at cnbc.com. 

An engineer who blacked out while operating a train, due to undiagnosed sleep apnea, won his arbitration case and will be reinstated as an engineer, as long as he meets medical conditions and continues sleep apnea treatment. He was suspended and subsequently fired after the crash, a decision that he appealed.

The crash occurred as his Pascack Valley Line train was approaching the end of the trip, arriving in Hoboken Terminal. The train sped up to 21 mph, twice the posted speed limit, crashed through a concrete bumper at the end of track five and into the station. Gallagher was found unconscious in the cab of the train and told investigators he had no recollection of the crash.

A pedestrian in the station, Fabiola Bittar de Kroon, 34, of Hoboken, was killed by falling debris from a collapsed canopy.

Get the full story at nj.com.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that around nine-point-four percent of children between two and 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD.  Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may also be a sign of asleep apnea in children.

Get the full story at www.wave3.com

Previous research has noted that many patients with psoriasis have sleep disorders that include OSA, making this sleep disorder one of particular concern for the patient with psoriasis.

In a study presented at the British Association of Dermatologists’ 99th Annual Meeting in Liverpool, United Kingdom, in July 2019, researchers from St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, reported on a study conducted in patients with both psoriasis and hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in which they found that there was a high prevalence of OSA among these patients.

The researchers recruited 38 patients with HS and 39 patients with psoriasis to complete 3 validated screening questionnaires for OSA, and patients also had their neck circumference, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, lipid profile, insulin level, and C-reactive protein level recorded. Overall, the majority of patients (82% in the psoriasis group and 76% in the HS group) had obesity or overweight as measured by BMI. The mean Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score among the patients with psoriasis was 4.8.

The researchers found that 50% of the HS patients and 34%

Telemedicine encounters differ from being in the same room with patients —in surprising ways.

By Sree Roy

The need for an unexpected veterinary appointment for our family dog could not have come at a worse time. Our 8-year-old Tibetan terrier mix had just gotten bit by a neighbor’s dog who had momentarily gotten loose and apparently wanted justice for the many times our dog barked at him during our daily walks.

Though the internet was full of cautionary tales of dogs who seemed OK after a bite but later succumbed to their internal injuries, I didn’t know if I could find the time or energy to drive our dog to his vet. At 8 months pregnant, I’d already been struggling to make up the work hours that I’d been using to take care of my own healthcare appointments, not to mention my frustration over their associated costs (such as a $10/hour parking lot).

I texted the vet with a brief summary, and he replied: “Have you downloaded my airVet app? We can chat real-time with video if you want me