Boy,am I miffed! Back in 2005 I went thru a battery of tests at the Cleveland Clinic to be placed on the transplant list. Made it to transplant nurse who said they would notsee me(transplant docs) unless I could get the drugs needed after transplant. Basicly told not to come back.
NOW,I find out I was covered for these drugs all along thru Medicare BECAUSE I had qualified for Medicre(10 yrs prior to being diagnosed with ESRD). The rule is if you were already on Medicare for a disability ,they would furnish the needed drugs for a lifetime.
Gheesh!
http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/cgi/content/full/3/3/899
The last improvement to coverage for immunosuppression came in 1999, when Congress authorized the "lifetime benefit." CMS's handbook Medicare Coverage of Kidney Dialysis and Kidney Transplant Services (21) explains, "Medicare will continue to pay for your immunosuppressive drugs with no time limit if you already had Medicare because of age or disability before you got ESRD, or became eligible for Medicare because of age or disability after getting a transplant that was paid for by Medicare, or paid for by private insurance that paid primary to your Medicare Part A coverage, in a Medicare-certified facility." The handbook also takes pains to point out twice that "if you have Medicare only because of kidney failure, your Medicare coverage will end 36 mo after the month of the (successful) transplant," so the patient must first be eligible for, then enrolled in, and paying the monthly premiums for Part B to have coverage for immunosuppression. In some programs, patients postpone active listing or living-donor surgery until the month of their 62nd birthday to be assured of uninterrupted lifetime help with the high cost of immunosuppression.
I am wondering,is this knowledge to little and to late for me?
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