Are transplant facilities charging for storing stem cells (marrow or apheresis products - NOT cord blood) beyond the initial time period after collection? If so, what are you charging and are you sending a bill (annually, quarterly, monthly?) from the lab?

Our agreement states that the fee after 5 years is $100 but may increase without notice and the hospital financial staff says that "everyone charges a lot more than $100" so I'm trying to find out what labs are actually charging for storage and how it works for them.

If you like, also let me know how long you store products for...

I believe that you can charge any reasonable fee as long as it is stated in the Consent for Storage. You should also spell out that any cost for shipping cells to another storage facility will be billed.

Sarah

Are you at MUSC or Roper?

We dont charge for storage of stem cell products. As far as I know there is no CPT code for it. We store products indefinitely until we have either direct knowledge of a patients death or they are listed on the social security death index. So far this has been accepted by financial as a cost of running a transplant program. If one of our financial people was chasing us to set up a way to capture some revenue to pay for the new freezers we keep needing to buy Id love it