me
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Another PICC line question: How much (approximately) does it cost per month for a PICC line (the putting in and taking out), rocephin, the flushes, medical supplies, (all daily), home nurse to change once a week, etc? Insurance covered a lot last time.
Thank you.
Posts: 1431 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2015
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My pic line was paid for by insurance. I use infuserve America and they have a rochephin kit that includes all supplies I pay around $360. a per two weeks. My friend changes the dressing for free for me . She is a nurse.
Posts: 71 | From NYC | Registered: Oct 2015
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sammy
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You are in luck, I just got an EOB for this... It costs approx $3,000 to have a PICC placed in a hospital. (This was under fluoroscopy by a radiologist.)
There may be further bills from the radiologist. Also for specific supplies....
I also had to have a meeting with a home health care nurse to make sure that I knew how to care for the PICC before going home. That was an additional $200.
If you are looking to pay out of pocket for Rocephin, contact Infuserve America for current weekly/ monthly quotes for the med, saline flushes, heparin, dressing change kits, biopatches, end caps, extension sets, tape, waterproof shower cover, mesh stocking net or tubifast (to cover the site and hold the extension tuning securely to your arm).
If you do not have a family member or friend that is an RN who is competent and willing to do your PICC dressing changes weekly, then you can call around to the various infusion companies to get price quotes.
Your insurance may not pay for antibiotics but they just might pay for the nursing care for the PICC. In my experience, Walgreens is a good company.
Also, your insurance may cover Rocephin in a different way than using an infusion pharmacy. See if your doctor will call the vials in to your local CVS or similar pill pharmacy like Costco.
Different parts of your insurance plan have different coverage and authorization guidelines. Your pill part of the plan just may cover the Rocephin vials without question for only a small copay! (This happened for me in the past!)
If you get the vials, you can FedEx them to Infuserve, they will mix them and put them in eclipse balls or large syringes and not charge you beyond the necessary supplies.
Hope this helps in some way!
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me
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Huge help, Sammy. Thank you tons!!!!
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bluelyme
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My port was a little less at 2g ...but then you add hubor needle etc etc
-------------------- Blue Posts: 1539 | From southwest | Registered: Dec 2015
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My PICC cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $700. Mine was placed by a nurse with a magnetically-guided placement machine in our local hospital.
This hospital has a "PICC team," a group of nurses who do nothing other than place PICCs all day every day. So they're really good at it.
Rumigirl
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quote:Originally posted by SickSam: My PICC cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $700. Mine was placed by a nurse with a magnetically-guided placement machine in our local hospital.
This hospital has a "PICC team," a group of nurses who do nothing other than place PICCs all day every day. So they're really good at it.
Wow, that sounds like a terrific, cost-effective way to get a PICC placed for you!
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sammy
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If you have it placed at the hospital by a PICC certified nurse, you will have multiple charges.
First for the PICC device and supplies used, the hospital fee for using the bed, the fee for the actual skilled nursing procedure (usually 2 RNs), and x-Ray for verification of tip placement.
Lastly, you will receive a charge from the radiologist that read the x- ray film and determined that it your PICC was properly placed and ready to use or if it needs adjusted and reevaluated.
Hospitals like to make money!
I've had 4 PICCs placed by RNs before we finally gave in and decided that I needed a Port. All of those PICCs were placed by RNs without any difficulty or complications. They were highly experienced professionals.
Recently, this past November, I was unable to use my port due to a skin infection (I have an immune deficiency... Prone to crazy stuff!). I also developed pancreatitis and was hospitalized.
The PICC nurse at this hospital sadly was not experienced or anywhere near competent! To be honest, I feared her!
Long story short, she didn't use proper sterile procedure when placing the chosen device. The doctor wanted me to have a PICC line, she decided to place a "midline". When the "midline quite working and my nurse removed it, we discovered that it was only an extended dwell peripheral!
So long story short, I will no longer trust PICC nurses. I will insist that my Future PICCs be placed under live view fluoroscopy by a radiologist. They make the procedure much easier and faster too.
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me
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I'm so sorry to hear that, Sammy. That must have been frightening. I hope things are going better now.
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me
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What about the cost for all of the supplies like the rocephin, heparin, saline, dressing change and home health care nurse, etc. Does anyone have a round about figure of the monthly cost without insurance?
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Man, I hate to hear that Sammy. My experience with the PICC nurses was completely different. It was so quick and simple. There was only one bill too, and I didn't need an X-Ray to confirm placement because the magnetically-guided machine confirmed the correct placement. I guess every hospital is different though.
Me, my supplies and home health were costing around $1500 a month, so from what I have read here I was getting a pretty terrible deal altogether. Insurance did pay for it though.
Also, I've read that hospitals who have a PICC team have significantly lower complication rates than hospitals who have multitasking nurses place PICCs. Maybe that's the difference???
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me
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Hi SickSam, Thanks for the response. Is the 1500 per month not accounting for what insurance paid? Thank you.
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sammy
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It's been a few years since I had to pay for supplies out of pocket. With my Immune deficiency, supplies are necessary for IVIG infusions and are covered for port maintenance too.
Read my earlier post about supplies needed for the PICC and call Infuserve Pharmacy to get a current price quote per week. That is how often you will do the dressing changes unless you have a problem like if the dressing gets wet...
For quotes on nursing care, call Walgreens / OptionCare Infusion Pharmacy. They have offices all over the country, probably near you! They will give you a quote on weekly nurse visits for dressing changes (aka PICC line care).
I remember signing a form not too long ago stating that nursing care would cost like $120 per hour if my insurance failed to pay...
If you have a PICC I would think that insurance will pay for its proper care and maintenance. A PICC dressing change is easy, takes less than an hour!
In my earlier post, I also went through how to get vials of the Rocephin covered under your RX pill part of the plan instead of using the medical part. It worked for me for some medications that I was told were not covered, even after appeals and such.
Your copay may vary though even on generic Rocephin vials so it helps to have a kind and helpful pharmacist run the pricing for you to find the lowest copay too!
Insurance shouldn't be so complicated, it should just pay for what your doctor feels is necessary and best for you!
Posts: 5237 | From here | Registered: Nov 2007
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Hi me, insurance paid the whole $1500, so I didn't have to pay anything out-of-pocket. That was using a full-service pharmacy. I really think you could get a better deal with the advice Sammy is giving you if you have to pay for everything out-of-pocket.
Just a note though, my insurance company actually pays *much* better using the medical part of the plan rather than the RX part of the plan. Sammy's right, insurance shouldn't be so complicated!! Every company is different.
Posts: 748 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2015
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me
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Thanks so much SickSam and Sammy. Much appreciated.
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