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ONG TERM SURVIVORS AND MEDICARE
Mar 14, 2004

In general, if someone qualifies and begins and continues to receive medicare due to HIV, for several years, when they come up for renewal, is the requalification procedure fairly automatic; or will drop in viral load to undetectable and rise in T celss to over 300, albeit with significant side effescts and fatigue from meds, risk possible disqualification from Medicare. Bless you for all you do. Keep up the good work, and ignore the occassional but inevitable rude comments.

Response from Ms. Breuer

Nothing is automatic with Medicare. If you are concerned about continuing eligibility, make sure that your medical records contain balanced news. In other words, be sure that the significant side effects and fatigue are documented along with the clinical improvements (T cells and viral load). Ideally, bring a list of side effects with their severity and dates along with you for each physician visit and give it to the prescriber for your medical file. Your provider needs to know about them anyway, and with a careful list (including time of day), your prescriber can help you to manage them more successfully so that your quality of life can improve.



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