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Health News
Woman needing lung transplant falls through cracks of health-care system, says she's treated as nothing more than a 'price tag'
Katie Prager, a 24-year-old cystic fibrosis patient from Ewing in Fleming County, needs a lung transplant, but has been denied one because she has met her lifetime maximum on Medicare, Christy Hoots reports for The Ledger Independent in Maysville.
"They've put a price tag on my name. That's all I am to these people right now," Prager told Hoots from her hospital bed at the University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center.
Prager has had cystic fibrosis her entire life, but it was a diagnosis of an infection called burkholderia cepacia in 2009 that caused her lung function to rapidly decline and caused the need for a lung transplant. She was told in 2013 that the UK Center for Cystic Fibrosis does not do transplants on cystic fibrosis patients with this infection, so she was sent to the University of Cincinnati hospital, Hoots reports.
She and her husband Dalton Prager, who also has cystic fibrosis, were then sent to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center because it is only one of two hospitals that will transplant a lung into a patient with this infection. They began evaluations in January 2013.
Dalton Prager was quickly approved and successfully received a double lung transplant in November 2013. Katie Prager wasn't approved until June 2013. While waiting for a donor lung, she was discharged to spend Christmas with her family, only to hear from the hospital that she could not return there because the Medicare maximum had been reached.
"At first, I thought I might be able to use Medicaid, but was told that it wouldn't cover my transplant due to UPMC being out of network," Katie Prager told Hoots. "After explaining to Medicaid that there are only two places in the country who would operate, due to cepacia, they still refused to work together to help me. In January 2015 I filed an appeal with Medicaid to have them reconsider. The appeal was denied."
She was recently told she would never be eligible to return to UPMC for a transplant and there was nothing else they could do for her, Hoots reports.
"They told me to basically stop wasting my time," she told Hoots. "These are people who we're trusting with our lives and they say that. Most people have no problems when they have to have medical treatments or transplants, and I'm being given the runaround. I'm not trying to be a burden on the system -- that isn't what I want. If I could work and get my own insurance, I would. All I want is a normal chance at life. I want to get my bachelor's degree, get up every day and go to work, run a 5K and have a normal life with my husband. I want to do all the things that young people in love get to do. Is that so much to ask?"
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| Photo from The Ledger Independent |
Prager has had cystic fibrosis her entire life, but it was a diagnosis of an infection called burkholderia cepacia in 2009 that caused her lung function to rapidly decline and caused the need for a lung transplant. She was told in 2013 that the UK Center for Cystic Fibrosis does not do transplants on cystic fibrosis patients with this infection, so she was sent to the University of Cincinnati hospital, Hoots reports.
She and her husband Dalton Prager, who also has cystic fibrosis, were then sent to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center because it is only one of two hospitals that will transplant a lung into a patient with this infection. They began evaluations in January 2013.
Dalton Prager was quickly approved and successfully received a double lung transplant in November 2013. Katie Prager wasn't approved until June 2013. While waiting for a donor lung, she was discharged to spend Christmas with her family, only to hear from the hospital that she could not return there because the Medicare maximum had been reached.
"At first, I thought I might be able to use Medicaid, but was told that it wouldn't cover my transplant due to UPMC being out of network," Katie Prager told Hoots. "After explaining to Medicaid that there are only two places in the country who would operate, due to cepacia, they still refused to work together to help me. In January 2015 I filed an appeal with Medicaid to have them reconsider. The appeal was denied."
She was recently told she would never be eligible to return to UPMC for a transplant and there was nothing else they could do for her, Hoots reports.
- Plight Of Woman Needing Lung Transplant, Who Has Fallen Through The Cracks Of The Health-care System, Gets Attention From Cnn
Update: CNN reports that Kentucky issued a Medicaid provider number to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the hospital confirmed that they now have enrolled in Kentucky Medicaid and are working to complete the enrollment of some of their...
- Jewish Hospital Of Louisville Becomes National Leader In Removing Heart Pumps From Patients With Heart Failure
Eleven patients with advanced heart failure were able to have their heart pumps removed thanks to a combination of medication administered at Louisville's Jewish Hospital. Texas Heart Institute is the only other institution that has removed...
- Uk Surgeons First To Do Life-saving Lung Procedures In Tandem
Surgeons at the University of Kentucky are the first in medical history to perform two procedures in tandem to bridge a lung transplantation. The procedures were performed first on Wanda Craig, 68, who is now the oldest person to be "bridged to transplant...
- Medicaid Cuts Could Leave Hundreds Of Thousands Of Illinoisans Facing Life-threatening Health Challenges
Report Details Number of Illinoisans with Cancer, Heart Disease, Stroke, Diabetes, and Chronic Lung Disease Who Depend on Medicaid for Treatment Cuts to Medicaid would pose a specific and dangerous threat to hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans who depend...
- Organ Donors Save Lives
Did you know there are nearly 2,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in Maryland? There's never been a better time to sign up to become an organ donor, or to celebrate the accomplishments of transplant recipients. While the opening...