There is a lot of confusion out there regarding sleep apnea and the dot medical exam for commercial drivers.

I know of many clinics in the orange county area that are forcing drivers to get sleep apnea tests before they will approve their medical exam.

There are two basic things to realize at this point when it comes to the medical exam and sleep apnea.

#1) The FMCSA has not released any official ruling regarding body mass index (BMI), weight, or neck size as it relates to setting some sort of standard for sleep apnea testing.

Medical providers who administer the DOT exam are not going by any specific set of guidelines because no guidelines have been set by the FMCSA.

#2) Medical examiners will often still want to send a driver who presents with a BMI over 40 for a sleep apnea test before they will certify them to drive.  This is because it is the medical examiner who is potentially liable if that driver causes an accident as a result of sleep apnea.  Medical examiners can be sued and/or lose their license to practice.

To summarize, although no official guidelines have been set for medical examiners and sleep apnea testing, medical examiners may still want to test drivers who are potential sleep apnea candidates (ie obese drivers with a BMI of 40 or more.)

Important note: For all drivers who have been diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea, you must provide proof of compliance with your prescribed modality, which is usually a CPAP machine.  To provide compliance you must show documentation that you have been using your CPAP machine for :

*At least 4 hours per night for 70% of nights.

If you can’t show compliance to the medical examiner, then the examiner HAS NO CHOICE but to only certify you for 30 days.  After the 30 days is up you can come back in for another exam.  However, at this point you can only be certified a MAXIMUM of 60 days.  After 60 days you will come back and again show compliance of the use of the CPAP machine.  At this point you can now be certified for a maximum of ONE YEAR.