When it begins to be cost effective, it ends… And what you can do. If a person is lucky enough to receive a kidney transplant while on Medicare, they receive assistance with purchasing their immunosuppressants for 36 months. Then the assistance ends. This is even though a transplant recipient must stay on these meds for the rest of their lives or they will reject the transplanted organ. Surprisingly (or maybe not) then the medicare/medicaid will pay for dialysis and even a subsequent transplant. The math: “A kidney transplant costs $125,000, and immuno-suppressives cost about $15,000 a year. But dialysis costs around $70,000 a year, making the transplant the wiser long-term investment.” Estimate from oregonlive/health/index.ssf/2013/08/house_bill_looks_to_extend_med.html?goback=%2Egde_154079_member_265136338#%21 This “…wiser long-term investment.” comes true in less than 3 years as a kidney transplant (if available) and taking immunosuppressants offsets the cost of the transplant surgery and begins saving Medicare $55,000 ($70,000/yr for dialysis - $15,000/yr for immunosuppressant meds) a year. That’s $55,000 per year for each transplant recipient. Sadly, this is at about the time that Medicare stops assisting with the payment for these medications. If the patient can’t afford to pay the $15,000 a year, they will reject their kidney and end up back on Medicare paid for dialysis or worse. There is now a bill coming up before the U.S. Congress, beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1428, to extend these benefits. Please consider contacting your U.S. Representative and mentioning the cost effectiveness of passing this bill. Thank-you. Not sure who your U.S. Representative is? Simply click on this link, house.gov/representatives/find/ and enter your zip code. When your Representative’s web page is displayed then click on the envelope icon that should be near their picture on their web site. This will bring you to their e-mail form where you can express your desire that they pass Bill 1428.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 02:00:00 +0000
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