Medicare Supplemental Insurance

I don't want to make light of your request but when you talk about Insurance Companies and no battle in one sentence it is almost sad. Teddy is on Cigna I am on Secure Horizons. Neither of us have had any trouble but mostly Cigna has been good and Teddy had a Whipple,  radiation and cyber knife. Not sure if your husband is not 65 how that would work.  Best of luck!!!

Hi Mary,
I'm Ashley and my 66 yr old mother was diagnosed with CC last month. I saw your posting on medicare and was wondering what you were able to find out since you last posted about it. My mother was at the Mayo earlier this month and we are now being told that once her diagnosis is labeled CC that any treatment related to CC will not be covered by medicare - is that true? They have covered pre-Mayo invoices but an official diagnosis had not yet been made. In any event, my mother has a blue cross policy also and luckily it is a full policy and not a supplemental as we are being told the supplemental just follows medicare - so if medicare doesn't cover it the supplemental won't either.

We are waiting for BCBS to have a medical review board look at my mom's clinical notes to see if they will cover treatment. We're crossing our fingers we are covered - but what about people who only have medicare?? I guess I am confused because there are a few postings on here that discuss medicare covering treatments so I am very confused - and this is just the beginning...

Hi Mary
Medicare will not cover the cc transplant protocol and we hope my
mom's second policy will. Still waiting
to hear but should know more by next wk.thanks for
your response

Good News!!
My mother Joan heard on Friday that Blue Cross WILL cover her live donor transplant due to CC!!!
A small relief given the list of items she is dealing with.
To reiterate, Medicare does NOT cover transplants for CC. She was lucky to have a FULL second policy ( not a supplemental one) that has finally determined they will pick up the bill.

She just finished 4 days of chemo/radiation with minimal side effects so far.  She is definitely tired but she is happy that is her only side effect at this point in time. She has an 5-FU pump on for 21 days straight with it being refilled every 7 days.. so a very low dose. Radiation is twice a day with 6 hours in between treaments. Brachytherapy is scheduled for 10/26. A robot directed by the doctor will place the iridium beads into her bile duct near the tumor. I assume the ERCP is done beforehand by the doc then the 'robot' takes over for the radiation side of this. We still need more info on exactly how this will work but it looks to be a 2 day process. Her stents will also be changed during this procedure.

Thanks for listening and thanks for eveyone's support. We're taking this one day at a time...
Ashley

Ashley, this is great news! Keep it coming!

Patty

Hi Ashley- I had 2 transplants for cc. My private policy paid for both after meeting deductables etc. We were self-employed and carried private insurance with Blue-Cross/Blue Shield. I had no problem getting my clinical trial approved with them. I also qualified for disability because of CC. I now qualify for medicare, but have found out by the time I buy supplement insurance,, drug coverage and pay my $110.00 for medicare it is cheaper to keep private insurance-go figure!! Insurance is very tricky now because we will never be insurable again. I realize that the pre-existing clause will help, but will it be affordable. I will never complain about my premiums again. Good luck Cathy