Is there any other catheter that is similar, but not as expensive? I learned an interesting fact from a DME guy last week. I'd inquired as to whether I could purchase less expensive catheters (the website had them for 71 cents each) in order to bring down my Medicare copay ($54/mo). He informed me that as long as a catheter cost less than the set amount Medicare pays, it doesn't matter. They pay X amount regardless of the actual cost. How fricken insane is that?
So, the set amount is somewhere around $270/mo. If Medicare paid by actual consumer cost, they could save around $140/mo just on my catheters alone. Not to mention, if the government actually negoiated prices for high volume purchases like a private company does, they should be purchasing catheters for 50 cents, or less. Things like this seem so common sense. It makes me crazy(ier)!
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"A lot of things were acceptable--until we stopped accepting it." -- Al Sharpton '12
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