Med B what will it pay for?

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

I have an admission pending to my facility. He is on 2 expensive chemotherapeutic agents. Needless to say, we will not be administering these meds in the facility. If he's with me on part A, do I have to pay for these drugs? One site says one drug is $16,000 per infusion...another says about $5000. Anyone know???

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

5 years ago or so, we accepted a resident in a similar situation. Oncologist insisted we would not be billed for the meds..and we weren't initially. About a year later we got a bill for some obnoxious amount of money that we owed for these meds. Not a pretty site.

Not sure what the actual rule is, but may be wise to just call medicare & see if you can actually find someone to clarify the situation for you before you accept.

[susanthomas1954]

Facility pays for Med A meds. End of story. Managed care will often carve out, but not Med A. ALSO, don't you have to have to have a specially trained nurse to give a $16,000 med? Patient needs to go to a hospital based clinic to receive the drug, or you will be billed for it. Trust me. If anything other than this occurs for you, PLEASE let us all know. ST

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Of course we weren't going to GIVE the med....jeezlies peezlies...I won't even let the nurses give IV Lasix. After hours of investigation, we found out that certain chemotherapeutic meds are excluded from Med A.