Questions About Vanderbilt

[ken870]

Does anyone know if vanderbilt takes medicare because my doctor is sending me and she was wondering if they would take my medicare from georgia to tennessee. Also she said my definite diagnosis for sure this time is pots, autonomic neuropathy and orthostatic intolerance.

Has anybody on this forum been to vanderbilt and what doctors did you see and did they give you any medicines also what tests did they do on you.

Edited November 6, 2008 by flop
Moved to a new thread

[flop]

I know that other members have been to Vandy - some as patients and some participating in research trials.

You could try searching the forum for "Vanderbilt" as I'm sure similar questions about Vandy's testing have been asked in the past.

Flop

[Sunfish]

re: insurance that's something that can really only be answered by vanderbilt. the contact info should be on the link i posted for you before. another thing to consider though is whether you are planning on going to the clinic as an outpatient or to the research center as an inpatient research patient. if you are a research patient then your own insurance only has to be willing to cover the first 24 hours or so of testing/ care, after which - if you are officially approved for the research protocol - all costs are covered by the research program at vandy (often funded through the national institute of health). obviously you still need to be concerned about the first day of coverage but it can at times allow people to access a level of care & testing that they wouldn't otherwise have coverage for. this info is several years old though so don't take it as the exact info that is accurate now. ultimately you need to talk to vanderbilt directly to see what there relationship is with medicare; it will also depend on what type of medicare you have...hospital coverage only or part B as well.

hope this helps & good luck!

melissa

p.s. for my experience as a research patient several years ago do a search for "vanderbilt chronicles". i wrote a good amount about what it was like to be a patient there. some details of the specific tests might change as the research protocols are different at different times but it will still give you some relevant info. if you have trouble finding it, or other info on vandy that others have posted via a search on "vanderbilt" or "vandy" let us know. for some basic help on searching check out "helpful hints for forum participation" at the top of the forum. (direct link ishttp://dinet.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5555).

[Rachel]

I recently saw Dr. Biaggioni at Vanderbilt. He was very nice, and his nurse was very sweet. The tech who did my testing was very kind, thorough, and patient. Even the receptionists, people at the help desks, and people at the check out desks were very nice.

The doctor wasn't able to help me much, but that is because I've been seeing doctors and specialists for years. I've already tried most of the meds available. If you haven't yet had treatment for POTS, then a doctor at Vandy would likely be able to give you a med/meds to try.

The autonomic function tests I had were:

Orthostatics

They measure your heart rate and blood pressure while lying down, and then again after 1, 3, 5, and 10 mintues of standing (if you can stand that long).

(For the following tests, in addition to hr and bp being measured, I was also hooked up to electrodes.)

Breathing Exercises

I was supposed to breath in for 5 seconds and then out for 5 seconds for a total of 1 1/2 mintues.

Valsalva

Hard breathing out into a tube for 15 seconds. I was supposed to keep the pressure at 40 mmMg for the whole 15 seconds if I could.

Hand in Ice Water

This one is very simple, just very cold! You hold your hand in ice water for 1 minute while hr and bp are monitored.

I hope this helps. The post that Melissa mentioned is a very good one. If you are intereste in going to Vanderbilt for research, she goes into detail about her experience there. I've never been for research, just as an outpatient.

They did accept my Medicare and Medicare supplement. If you have concerns about your particular insurance, you can contact Vanderbilt. Someone there should be able to answer your question.

Rachel

[ken870]

i was wondering if anybody will tell me the cost of going to vanderbilt because if my medicare does not pay i dont know if i could go.

[ken870]

i was wondering if anybody will tell me the cost of going to vanderbilt because if my medicare does not pay i dont know if i could go.

my doctor also said that she would get in touch with vanderbilt and see if they could see me right away so i was wondering if anyone else had their doctor get them in right away or if they had to wait months to go to vanderbilt.