Re: Health Insurance and Transplants

[Guest guest]

Hey Rick,

We recently met with a transplant financial consultant at my

trasplant center, so some of this is fresh in my mind still--I hope I

can help.

1. Our counselor said she has seen folks go beyond a $500,000

lifetime policy, and get close with $1 million. My personal lifetime

max is $1.5 million, and she said we should have no problems with

that.

2. We have one out of pocket maximum for the year--$5000, or 7% of

your salary up to a maximum of $7200 (ours happens to be $7200).

This covers everything except prescription drugs, and includes the

transplant. No seperate deductibles for anything else, other than

medications.

3. Yes, our policy covers 'donor charges' which includes getting the

liver to my transplant center from a potentially long distance, which

may thereby use a medi-vac or ambulance or something.

4. We're working with BCBS which has some sort of a

transplant 'package' of standard care and coverages. You can opt

into everything offered in the service simply by choosing the package

when you choose the benefits you want to offer your employees. The

package determines maximum amounts that can be charged for certain

services, has coverages for all kinds of situations, and covers all

standard donor and receipient charges.

Genevieve

UC 1983, J-Pouch 1999, PSC 12/07, CCA 10/08. Just finished my first

two cycles of chemo, getting ready to start chemo and radiation

together 1/26/09.

>

> I was hoping to hear some feedback from folks regarding transplants

> and health insurance. I am in the position to be picking the group

> policies for my business and have seen a lot of differences in the

> policies when it comes to transplants. Here are a few questions:

>

> 1. When considering a plan's maximum lifetime benefit how much of

a

> considering should this be? Is a policy with a $3 million maximum

> acceptable for us? Or should we be shooting for the $5 million or

> $10 million lifetime maximums?

> 2. Do any of your plans have seperate deductibles for

transplants?

> I have seen several that have a seperate column with deductibles up

> to $30,000. How much have some of your out of pocket expenses been

> for transplant?

> 3. Have any of you had coverage for aeromed/jet ambulance

services?

> Some companies I have been looking at will provide this benefit up

to

> $15,000 to jet you to your transplant center when a liver is

> availalbe. Is this even realistic to use this kind of service?

> 4. Has anyone had trouble getting their transplants approved by

> insurance? Do you have any carriers that you recommend that were

> easy to work with?

> 5. Any other feedback or comments that might be helpful as I'm

> picking a policy. I need to be careful because this plan is for my

> employees too and even though we cover 75% of the cost I don't want

> to pad thier bills when I anticipate a service I may need some time

> down the road.

>

> Thanks for any feedback that you can offer!

>

> Rick

>

[Guest guest]

At Baylor they say United Healthcare Transplant insuance is one of the

few that still offers expense reimbersment for hotels, travel, meals

for both pt and cargiver. they also they are one of the easier

companies to work with. Yes Baylor said 250,000 cash that is just to

get an eval if one does not have insurance!

PSC 5/07 Listed

[Guest guest]

At Baylor they say United Healthcare Transplant insuance is one of the

few that still offers expense reimbersment for hotels, travel, meals

for both pt and cargiver. they also they are one of the easier

companies to work with. Yes Baylor said 250,000 cash that is just to

get an eval if one does not have insurance!

PSC 5/07 Listed