Insurance
Medicare Could Cover Home INR Testing
Sunday, July 1, 2007
PTINR.com Staff
Home testing for patients on Coumadin may soon be covered by Medicare & Medicaid. Your voice can make a difference.
All patients over 65 years old who take Coumadin or generic warfarin (Coumadin ®) have a unique opportunity to express their desire for Medicare & Medicaid to cover the costs of home INR testing through a simple finger stick. Medicare and Medicaid is providing a feedback form for patients and doctors to express their support for coverage of a home INR monitoring system and testing strips.
Patients can submit feedback directly to Medicare via the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website (click Submit Feedback link at the very bottom of the page). There, patients can express their desire to have Medicare and Medicaid cover the costs of home monitoring and needed training to safely and easily test at home with a simple finger stick.
Patient self testing at home is not a substitute for routine physician care and regular office visits as determined by the patient’s physician. Home testing for Coumadin is very similar to how diabetic patients check their blood sugar. Home INR testing is easy and accurate to perform and typically done weekly.
Patients should keep their comments brief and to the point as to why/how self testing would benefit them and how more frequent testing would improve the control and safety of warfarin or brand Coumadin.
Personal stories or health information is not needed and should not be provided.
Patients will need to fill out the form only once and do so before July 27, 2007 when the form will be removed and comments evaluated by Medicare/Medicaid.
Stay tuned on the outcome of Medicare & Medicaid’s decision by checking back with PTINR.com frequently.