Recipient's Insurance

[ljmeeds]

I donated a kidney to my brother 7-2017. I was told he should add me to his Medicare--does anyone know how that works? Is it part A, B, both, and how long am I covered? THANKS

[Fr Pat]

I don't know the answer, but you might want to also post the question at the FaceBook page of Living Donors on Line as more donors check in there.
    Fr. Pat

[sherri]

I have never heard of anyone being added on to someone else's Medicare coverage. Each patient needs to qualify for Medicare either because they are over age 65 or have a disease that is covered under Medicare like ESRD. you can go onto the Medicare.gov website. The only thing I saw was https://www.medicare.gov/coverage/transplants-kidney-adults.html and this talks about the expenses for the donor related to the donation pre, during and immediately post surgery. During your kidney evaluation the team should talk to  potential donors about having their own insurance because they will be responsible for any usual follow up care. the transplant center is required to give information to a database at 1 month , 6 months, 12 months and 2 years post surgery on the donor. After that, as far as I understood, we are all on our own.

I would love to see a Medicare benefit for living kidney donors. We save Medicare a lot of money by keeping their patients off dialysis.

Please let us know the information you received about your brother adding you to his Medicare benefit.

[Clark]

Interesting that they're putting this on you to do. Talk to your donor advocate at the transplant center. Most likely someone new in a role doesn't know that services for you pre-, during, and post-surgery all get billed to the recipient's Medicare A and/or B coverage, if any, or insurance company otherwise. If you're getting bills, or, like this, the implication that you have to do anything to avoid being billed, the transplant center admin needs to know and resolve.

I got a dunning call nearly two years after I donated about an unpaid anesthesia charge that I'd never seen. The hapless collection agent, a tough talking guy, burst into tears when he found out I was a living donor, apologized, and told me he'd track it back to be coded and billed properly. His daughter was on dialysis and listed for a deceased donor transplant.  Best wishes to you and your recipient!