Medicare requires that your provider ensure that you have a source of "at home" O2 and a portable system. What portable system they provide you with is generally left up to them. Clearly, it's least expensive for them to give you tanks and a carry bag. They should have several sizes of tanks that would work for you and you should be able to choose.

Some providers will make a portable O2 concentrator (POC) available to you. However, there are things you need to know before you decide this is what you want. First you need to know how much O2 you require and do you require continuous flow or can you work with pulse dose. The POC you can carry that produces the most O2 is the Inogen G5 and it produces a MAX of 1.26 LPM, so if you need more than that, this POC may not work for you. I suggest you go to www.pulmonarypaper.org and read everything that Ryan Diesem has written in the last year regarding POCs. Once you've read that material and understand all of it, you'll have just enough information to make an informed choice.

If you're convinced that there is a POC that will keep you adequately oxygenated, you need to get your doc to prescribe that machine by name to your provider. Your doc should also be willing to go to bat for you with both the provider and with Medicare if necessary (making phone calls indicating that it's this machine specifically that will meet your needs). Don't expect that your doc will know ANYTHING about POCs; if they do, they are a rare bird indeed. They don't teach at home O2 systems in med school. Most pulmos have NO CLUE.

The tactic I just described has worked for others and will allow you to get a POC. Whether the POC will keep you adequately oxygenated is another issue. YOU have to do the homework and research to determine that. POCs are not all equal and there are no standards for their manufacture or operation. The settings don't equate to Liters Per Minute; they deliver a pulse dose that is a fraction of their maximum output. POCs do work for some people; you have to figure out if one will work for you.

Medicare paid for mine. I started with the small portable tanks for a month but asked my doctor to prescribe the portable unit as the tanks were hard for me to handle. He ordered the change and they delivered the portable. I now have a large concentrator for night and the portable for going out.

i recently got the portable as well as the house concentrates. My doctor handled all the paper work. They just showed up at my house with the units. It cost me $24.95 per month and at some point i will own them. Hope this helps.
Have a breathe easy day
Hug

Thanks for info