How to Track CPAP Compliance From Your Imported Data

The hardest part of the Medicare 90-day window is not knowing where you stand. The official compliance report is pulled by your durable medical equipment (DME) supplier, usually after day 31. Until then, most CPAP users are guessing. The CPAP Clarity compliance tracker reads the data on your machine and shows your current 70%/4-hour status, your days remaining, and the best 30-day window in your imported nights, all in your browser. None of your data leaves the page.

This guide walks through how to use the tracker, what each card means, and what to do with the answer.

This is not your insurance company's record. The tracker estimates your status from data you imported yourself. Your DME supplier's read of your machine is the source of truth your insurer uses. Confirm coverage details with your DME supplier or insurer.

Step 1: Import your SD card

Pull the SD card out of your CPAP machine and put it in a card reader. If your computer does not have a built-in slot, a USB-C SD card reader (opens in new tab) costs about $10 and lasts forever. If your card itself is reading errors or the machine warns about card issues, replace it with a SanDisk 32GB microSDHC (opens in new tab) before the next download. Off-brand cards are a common source of compliance gaps because the device silently drops nights it cannot write.

On the CPAP Clarity dashboard, drop the whole SD card folder into the import zone. Do not pick a single subfolder. The whole folder import lets the parser see every night the machine recorded, including older sessions you might have forgotten about. The data parses entirely client-side; it never reaches a server.

Once the import is done, every imported night appears on your dashboard and is available to the compliance tracker.

Step 2: Pick your start date

The tracker defaults to your earliest imported night as the day-zero of your 90-day Medicare window. That works for most users, because your first imported session is usually within a day or two of getting the machine.

If your machine shipped earlier than your first imported session, override the start date on the tracker page. The override field is on the lower right of the page and saves to your browser. If you change it, the 90-day countdown shifts to match.

The official start date is the day your DME delivered the device. If you cannot remember, your DME supplier has it on file.

Step 3: Read the countdown

The headline cards show three numbers: days remaining, current status, and your last seven-night pace.

Days remaining is the count of days left in your 90-day window. The exact end date is also shown.

Current status is one of On Track, At Risk, Failing, Passed, or Failed. The categories come from the same math the manual calculator uses. On Track means you are meeting the threshold with room to spare. At Risk means your buffer is one night or fewer. Failing means the rolling 30-day window can no longer mathematically reach 70%, regardless of what you do tonight; the tracker will suggest you try a different 30-day window inside your 90-day period. Passed and Failed are the terminal states for a fully-tracked 30-day window.

Last seven-night pace is the count of compliant nights in the most recent seven days of imported data. Anything below five out of seven (about 71 percent) means your trailing pace is dragging your window down.

Step 4: Read the best 30-day window

The "Best 30-day window" card scans every consecutive 30-day window inside your 90-day period and surfaces the highest-compliant one. This is the number that matters most for the Medicare rule, because the rule requires only one passing window in the 90 days, not 90 days of perfect compliance.

If your best window is already at 21 of 30 compliant or higher, you have technically already passed the threshold. Your DME has the same data. Most suppliers can pull a successful compliance report any time after day 31. If your best window is close to 21 but not there yet, the tracker will tell you how many more nights it would take to land it.

If you are early in your 90 days, the best window will look small simply because there are not many nights to scan yet. That is normal. The window grows as you add more nights.

Step 5: Read your pace

The Projection card translates your last seven-night pace into a date. If your trailing pace is at or above 70 percent, the tracker projects when your imported nights would reach 21 of 30 in the rolling window. The projection is honest about uncertainty: if your pace is below 70 percent, no projected date is shown. The tracker never tells you "you will pass."

Tap "Show margin" to see how many nights you can still skip in the current 30-day window before it can no longer reach 70 percent. The number drops as you stack non-compliant nights and grows back as you stack compliant ones.

If the projection is null because your pace is too low, the most useful thing to do is figure out why. The most common reasons people fall short are mask leaks, dryness, and pressure intolerance. Try the Mask Finder Quiz to check whether a different mask style might suit you, since mask discomfort is the leading reason CPAP users abandon therapy. For ongoing maintenance, CPAP cleaning wipes (opens in new tab) keep your cushion sealed properly so leaks do not creep in. If the issue is air dryness, see our CPAP humidity settings guide. For a deeper playbook of consistency strategies, read how to improve your CPAP compliance.

Step 6: Print or save the page for your re-evaluation visit

Medicare requires a face-to-face re-evaluation visit between days 31 and 91 of your therapy. Your physician documents that you are benefiting from the device and reviews objective adherence data. Your DME supplier brings their own report to that visit, and that report is what matters for billing. The tracker page is not a substitute.

That said, printing the tracker page can be useful as a personal copy. The page has a Print button that opens your browser's print dialog. Choose "Save as PDF" as the destination if you want a digital copy. Bring it to your visit alongside your DME's report so you can ask questions about anything that does not match.

What to do if the numbers do not match your DME's report

The tracker reads your imported nights only. If a night is missing from your import, it does not show in the tracker, even if your DME has it on file. Two common reasons numbers diverge:

• You did not import every night. Your DME pulls data straight from the device or the cellular link. If you pulled the SD card before all nights wrote, or if you are reading an older card, the tracker may underreport. Re-import to fix it.
• The DME read the data through AirView's cellular path while you read it from the SD card. Both should match in normal cases, but in rare instances the cellular sync drops an event or the SD card has a write error. If your DME's report shows a passing window the tracker does not, trust the DME's. They have access to both feeds.

The tracker is for your own monitoring. The DME's read is the official record. If the two ever diverge in a way you cannot explain, ask your DME for a copy of their report and compare night by night.

What to do if you are at risk of failing

Three things help, in this order:

1. Find the underlying barrier. Mask leaks, claustrophobia, dryness, and pressure intolerance are the four most common reasons people fall short. Each has a distinct fix. Don't assume "I just need to try harder." Try the Mask Finder Quiz and see how to improve your CPAP compliance for a full list.
2. Run the tracker every few days. Once you are off the path, it is easy to lose track. Bookmark the tracker page and check it every few days. The dashboard hint card on the home page also shows your status at a glance any time you are inside your 90-day window.
3. Talk to your DME or sleep physician early. If you are genuinely struggling for a documented clinical reason (severe claustrophobia, mask-fit issues, breathing-pattern incompatibility), get that conversation on the record before day 90. Late conversations rarely save coverage. Early ones often can.

If you have already passed your 90 days and want a deeper look at long-term consistency, read CPAP consistency over perfection. The 90-day rule is a floor, not a ceiling.

Reference

• Medicare CPAP Compliance: The 4-Hour Rule, the full breakdown of CMS's adherence rule.
• CMS Local Coverage Determination L33718, Positive Airway Pressure Devices for the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
• Noridian Medicare DME, Continued Coverage Beyond the First Three Months of Therapy policy reminder.
• Medicare.gov, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) therapy coverage page.

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