HOW LOW DOES BATTERY NEED TO BE BEFORE REPLACED?

I am being monitored monthly and sending my info in every week through the home monitor.  My doctor said that insurance will not cover until my battery is depleted to a certain point.  I am now at 2.5 months left of battery life.  I use my pacer 50% of the time.

Does anyone know how far depleted does the battery need to be?  It's like a guessing game.  I just want to kind of know.  I have never had it replaced before.

3 Comments

replacement time

by Tracey_E - 2024-03-25 15:30:20

They don't go by how much time is left. At some point, approx 2.5 months from now, it will switch to elective replacement mode. This is when most insurance will cover it. It will last about 3 months at this point, so you have a bit of time to make your plans. 

I didn't get to see a surgeon until mine was less then a month

by Goose Goose - 2024-03-25 21:36:11

I go to the VA and had a broken lead for about 2 years. They kept adjusting my pacer and after each adjustment they would tell me a later date as to how much longer it would last. My appointments were about 3 months apart then. I knew it was getting close to the end when I received a referral to an outside doctor. I made the appointment and got in right away. He told me my pacer was below 30 days. He also said it (or pacemakers in general - I don't remember) will start audibly beeping at 2 weeks. Assuming that hearing a beeping coming from your chest doesn't increase your heart rate, I'd think that if you start hearing a beep coming from somewhere, I'd get ahold of a decision maker right away!

Good luck!

(I'm rarely on here so I won't see a reply)

Replacement before elective period

by Elisabet - 2024-03-26 20:13:56

I had a less than a month (estimated) before the elective replacement period when I saw my ep a couple weeks ago. He had be go ahead and get on the schedule and I had it replaced this morning. Insurance is covering it, even though it hadn't started beeping or buzzing yet.

One thing to note is that if you need an MRI (I need two!), Medtronic's policy is that you have to wait six weeks after a genarator change (it's the same for the initial implantment). On the other hand, they won't do an MRI if you are too close to the replacement marker. The fear (according to the nurse who asked the Medtronic rep) is that it won't have enough energy to bring out of MRI mode and back to normal operation. Even though they build in MONTHs of run-out room. Oh well. Oh well. I'm going to have to wait. I was another reason to schedule the generator change as soon as possible.

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