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catheters and Medicare…4 a month!!!!
Having just turned the magical 65 and had to go on medicare as my primary insurance i am doing battle with them over their allotment of……get this….4 catheters a month. How ridiculous is that….i ask them if they could manage voiding 4 times a month…apparently they do not hire anyone with a sense of humor. Anyway i see this as almost a feminine issue as mostly women get the internal pouches which require catherization 4 to 6 times a day. Even the manufactureres say…”One use Only”…. never mind that maybe you can get them cleaned out if you just happen to have an immaculate bathroom and sink…its still a guessing game whether all that muucous sticks to the sides and breeds whatever and leaves you with a kidney infection. Just wondering if there are any other people out there who have had the same problem? I’m fighting them but i’d like to know i’m not alone in the battle…….HELP…..Pat
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7 Replies
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How much fluid can the bag hold? Don
Hanging in there! -
Hi Sylvia– funny you should mention the public restroom visibility issue. I know it is off the topic of medicare and the number allowed…
In all the years I have been cathing in public, I have only been asked once about what it was and why. I find it interesting, but I guess people are used to the veil of privacy of restrooms even if they see what you are doing. I make no secret of what I am washing. Sometimes I even get provocative [about bc advocacy] and emerge from the stall with my surgilube packet in my teeth as I head for the sink… I must look deranged– no one has ever asked… so I cannot tell them!
Karen
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Hello,
I have had an Indiana pouch for soon to be 10 yrs. I can’t help you with the medicare insurance because I don’t have it. However, I discovered that I can get my catheters through my K-Mart pharamacy at 1/3 the cost of a medical supply house. They have to order them, but the savings is definitely worth it. I have bought my own all these years. I use the latex catheters because the clear ones seem to irritate me more. I have never had an infection and I simply wash them with warm soapy water and let them dry. Like Karen, I have learned to deal with public places even though I have had a few odd looks.
Sylvia -
Hi Patricia,
Karen told me about your post and suggested I share my experience with medicare. Medicare is now my secondary insurance since I work for a larger company than I did previously. When medicare was primary, I asked my doctor to write a letter for me which I sent to the medical supply house that I ordered from. The letter said that I had had a cystectomy with Indiana Pouch placement and the date of the operation. Then it added: “Due to difficulty straight catheterizing in the morning the patient at times requires a new catheter. Used catheters become softer and make the catheterization process more difficult for the patient. as evidenced by tissue trauma and bleeding. The patient also has chronic urinary tract infections and I have encouraged her to change her catheters more frequently. Please allow one box per month.” Hope this is helpful! Good luck,
Marti -
I have had to self-cath my neobladder every time I void since May of 2005. I have used the same BARDAM 16fr for over four months now. I have only had two UTI’s since surgery and blame them on chemo. I clean them with BIO soap after each use.
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I have a neobladder but since November have had to cath whenever I need to void. I reuse them by washing with hot soapy water and then boiling for 10 minutes. I have had one UTI and felt that this was from having to cath in a public bathroom at an airport. I purchased a box of 30 @ $1.75 each. I was told to not use any for longer that a month. I use ten each month over and over.
Ken
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HI Pat– I am still on private insurance from my job so do not have to deal with the medicare limitations– but I reuse catheters and have not had a problem. I had my RC in 8/00 and in the 5+ years I have been performing unnatural acts in public restrooms [ha ha], I have only had one UTI. I have managed clean technique in planes trains and autos, and at the beach, and in some fairly primitive bathrooms on the road.
Several other pouch women and I wrote the Post hospital survival guide on the webcafe site and there is a section on the care and feeding of catheters which you may find helpful. Also– I only use the clear catheters– either the mentor or the Rochester Medical– so you can see if it is clean or not.
You can point out to your medicare office that if you get an infection it will be much more expensive to treat than more liberal dispensing of cathethers. A friend kept ending up septic and getting rehospitalized– and her insurance company recognized that authorizing boxes of single use catheters were much cheaper than a week in intensive care on some very expensive antibiotics.
Life is certainly different now right– but still good. Karen
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