Nearly 300,000 people in the U.S. today are living with a spinal cord injury and require the use of urinary catheter supplies.
The use of a Foley catheter, or other a silicon or rubber tube which runs from the urethra to the bladder, allows urine to drain into an external collection bag. This catheter may be used to help patients who are having trouble passing urine. It may also be used to help patients who are not able to use a bedpan or restroom.
Though the device is simple in its methods, catheters require routine maintenance and sterilization to help prevent catheter associated urinary tract infections. A UTI is an infection in your kidneys, bladder, or other part of your urinary tract and while some people feel normal when they have a UTI, others may experience symptoms such as fever plain in the bladder area or side of the body, sick feeling or constant urge to relieve one’s bladder.
Because it is never advised to reuse urinary catheter supplies, it is important that these supplies are made affordable and accessible to those in need.
Urinary catheter supplies, Foley catheter supplies as well as self catheter supplies are often covered under Medicare. To be eligible for free catheter supplies through your Medicare plan, you must have permanent urinary incontinence or retention, as diagnosed and documented by your physician.