AUSTIN, Texas, Nov 1, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Kidney donors may face huge
medical bills because having one kidney may constitute a pre-existing condition
under which coverage is denied, officials confirm.
A Texas hospital official said organ donors are told, but only orally, that
having one kidney may be a pre-existing condition affecting insurance.
Philip Knisely, 53, of Austin, Texas, who donated a kidney to a co-worker a year
ago, has received more than $18,000 in related medical bills, and said he was
not informed that if he ever lost his employment-related insurance, insurers
might consider his having a single kidney an uninsurable pre-existing condition,
the American-Stateman reported Sunday.
James Pittman, transplant program director at North Austin Medical Center where
the transplant was done, said donors receive that information orally, the
newspaper reported.
As Congress debates reform of the healthcare system, it should require Medicare
to ascertain that donors are covered, as provided by a 1972 law, regardless of
states' conflicting policies, said Donna Luebke, a cardiology nurse practitioner
at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, a kidney donor and nationwide
advocate for living donors.
Luebke urges legislation prohibiting insurers from discriminating against donors
for having "pre-existing conditions."
Some advocates also want a living-donor registry so it is easier to track them
and any future medical problems they may have, the newspaper reported.
"Right now it is the issue for living donors in this country," Luebke said. "I
know of donors who have paid thousands of dollars out of pocket for
complications."
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International