Hello Everyone,
I am curious, will Medicare pay a wheeled case for a peritoneal cycler? I have a friend who cannot carry her cycler when traveling, and I was wonder if her insurance will cover it. She has medicare and a state medicaid plan.
Thank you. I am really concerned about her, and she is unable to carry the 25 lb cycler and does not have anyone to help her travel, so she is severly limited in travel and she really needs to travel to see her family back home for emotional support.
She should talk with the company that made her machine to see what they suggest. Perhaps they have a loaner case that she could use when traveling so she would not have to purchase something she uses only infrequently. Can her home training nurse suggest anything that others have used?
Hi Beth!
Thank you! I believe her center was able to obtain one for her yesterday after what seems much aggrievation.
And another question to anyone who can answer!
I would love to know what the “average” process is for PD patients arranging treatment when traveling.
Honestly, I feel a little angry that she was so upset by the process she had to maneuver. While I only heard her side of the issue, the whole process was not very enabling for her.
I didn’t think to mention previously, that a lot of cycler (CCPD) patients are taught how to do manual exchanges (CAPD) as well as CCPD in case they need to do dialysis and don’t have electricity for their cycler or, indeed, when they travel so so they don’t have to take their cycler with them. If your friend’s clinic hasn’t taught her how to do this, she might want to ask.
It’s easy for a patient to go away for a short time and take enough PD supplies for a few days. Not surprisingly, many PD patients travel without even letting their dialysis center know. However, it’s always a better idea for PD patients to know where a clinic is in the area where they’ll be in case they need to have a line change or other medical attention. The home clinic or their supply company can help them find this clinic. If they can’t carry their supplies with them, they will need to have the supply company ship them and be prepared to be charged by a hotel for storing them. Patients at my old dialysis clinic took along antibiotics in case they they needed to start the peritonitis protocol. I’m not sure if other clinics provide this to patients just in case or not. Patients need to take a recent set of their medical records in case they need to go to a doctor, clinic or hospital. They need to take their insurance cards and be sure that insurance will pay where they’re traveling. Original Medicare pays for dialysis anywhere in the U.S. and its territories, but will not pay for routine care outside the U.S. Patients should take numbers for the backup clinic as well as the home clinic and their regular nephrologist in case they need to call them. They should take all their medicines too (carry on if traveling by plane). Going on vacation doesn’t mean vacation from diet or fluid limits or prescribed medications.
I found this 30-page article – p. 549-579 in the Nephrology Nursing Journal – a journal written for members of the American Nephrology Nurses Association. However, there is a transient dialysis form that shows what information a clinic wants to know to treat a traveling patient. I’m not sure if clinics are using this form or have one of their own. There’s a patient education brochure included in the article starting on page 560.
www.annanurse.org/download/reference/practice/pdToolbox.pdf
Hope this helps make her next trip less stressful.