Have found this discussion board very informative. I read about some people who mention clinical trials. Please explain them. ie; How do you get accepted into one? Does it mean (if accepted) that you do not pay the costs of treatment? Also, is PAE covered and paid for by the Medical Insurance Industry today or is it not covered by the Insurance industry because of the newness of this treatment? Any help in this area would be greatly appriciated. Thank you.
Go to ClinicalTrials.gov to see what's in your area. The guidelines for acceptance are given for each clinical trial. Some have two arms of the study, one for PAE and one for TURP. You will be randomly chosen for either one. In my opinion, I would not opt for this kind of study. PAE and TURP are two different animals. Some studies are based on size of the prostate. Most studies find that Medicare will pay for the PAE. In many cases, private insurance will not cover the PAE. I tried to get into a clinical trial at Northwestern University which is still open. I'm not on Medicare. My private insurance would not pay for it. At first, they wanted to charge me $11,000, then it increased to $13,000, then to $15,000. They actually wanted me to pay out of pocket to help them with their study. Because the methodology (embolization) is not new, the federal government has not given grants for these studies according to Northwestern. It is only the application for the prostate that is new.
Peter,
i can only speak to my experience. I had my PAE in a clinical trial at UNC Chapel Hill, NC. There was a link on their website to contact the Radiologist, Dr Isaacson, by email. He responded to me almost immediately and signed me up for the trial. The procedure did not cost as it is covered by the trial. There are various tests that have to be performed before and after. For me these were covered by Medicare.
Thank you William. I'm not on Medicare but do have Insurance. Figures they pay for one (Medicare) but not the other(Aetna) private insurance. I checked my wallet and didn't have the coin to pay for this procedure! lol. One can always wait and hope.