Costs of drugs - Page 3

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

Many posters on this thread completely missed the point. It wasn't what I had to pay - my insurance paid for it -- it was that 14 pills should never cost $759 in the first place.

wilma · ‎03-13-2010

@hckynutwrote:

@wilma

When you say the word "infusion", how exactly is a specific dosage accepted into your body? Why is it called a "blood infusion", in lieu of "blood transfusion?

My most recent "Iron Infusions", I was at the hospital for 1 for 5 hours, and the 2nd one for over 6 hours. With my "Blood Transfusions", depending on the number of "units of blood" they ranged from 4 hours to 10 hours each time. All of them were done in the hospital as either an "In-patient or Out-patient". Recent ones have been as an "Out-patient.

Is it your own blood, that you gave them, to be administered at a later date, or just blood donated by "anonymous" that matches your specific type? That I have heard about, but have never had done myself.

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it,

hckynut(john)

@hckynut

I went to an oncologist/hematologist at the hospital for my infusions. It took about 4-5 hours for an IV drip to deliver the immune system protein I was lacking. It was my understanding that the “medicine” was made by removing the white blood proteins from whole blood of other individuals who donated blood. To my knowledge matching blood types was not required since I only received one specific white blood protein. If you want more technical info you can google IgG.

hckynut · ‎03-10-2010

@wilma

Thank you for explaining this process to me. I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my questions. First time I have heard of this procedure. It is always great coming to this forum and learning something new.

Thank you again,

hckynut(john)

pepes mom · ‎03-09-2010

I always check good rx dot com or the app one rx to find prices. Sometimes using my regular insurance is cheaper. Sometimes it is better with one of the two I mentioned. The pharmacy at the grocery store I use has their own discount plan that they can run my meds through. It is a shame that we as patients have to do this, but if it puts a few more bucks in my pocket, I won't complain.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

As a hemophiliac, I have a lot of experience with expensive drugs. Pretty much nothing is more expensive than clotting factor. I'm currently infusing 977 units a day due to my broken femur and it's priced a bit over $1.80 per unit so it's over $1,750 per day. And sadly, none of that cures the hemophilia. It just controls it for a day. It's very easy to rack up drug costs of a half million dollars or more. It's hard to find a more expensive medication than clotting factor.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

Lipstickdiva · ‎03-10-2010

@Cakers3wrote:
@aninwrote:
price comparison can be the best solution for finding best price
@anin Yes and GoodRX has coupons that can be used in place of insurance.

CVS also offers a discount plan at no cost.

One does not have to use ones insurance all the time for drugs.

My DH used to be pills that were no charge through certain pharmacies and then they were $10.00. We didn't run those through our insurance because it didn't make any sense.

Alison Wonderland · ‎02-05-2018

@aninwrote:
price comparison can be the best solution for finding best price

It can be, but some insurance companies don't allow for that. My prescription insurance is through CVS/Caremark and the plan I'm on only allows for me to get a prescription filled at a CVS store or through mail order. If I go to another store, I have to pay entirely out of pocket. My Advair inhaler is $581 - $621 per month without insurance ($509 with a discount card from GoodRx.com). With my insurance, I pay $175 for a 3-month supply, but the insurance also stupulates that I have to buy a 3-month supply and can't get one at a time. If I try to get one month only, they charge me full price.

Lipstickdiva · ‎03-10-2010

@151949wrote:
Many posters on this thread completely missed the point. It wasn't what I had to pay - my insurance paid for it -- it was that 14 pills should never cost $759 in the first place.

@151949, I don't think anyone missed the point. You started off your initial post saying OMG because you had to pay $38 and change as the co-pay for the 14 pills. You even wondered if you could have gotten it cheaper. Then you said you looked and saw your insurance company was billed over $700.00 for those pills.

I personally wouldn't have even gave a second thought to an under $40.00 co-pay for an antibiotic. I'm not sure how your insurance works but I pay the same co-pay no matter where I get my script filled. It doesn't pay for me to run around trying to find somewhere cheaper. If my co-pay on the meds called in would be $3.00 at Walgreens, it would be $3.00 at Target.

I can't believe in all your years that you've never seen the high cost of drugs. Maybe you never paid attention before but you have stage 3 kidney disease and I swear you are a cancer survivor so I would think you've had some high dollar meds before. Or that you would have heard on the news about the outrageous cost of some drugs. Remember the rise in price of the Epipen?

I guess I assumed most people know that there are some very pricey meds out there. A few years ago a drug used to treat AIDS was $750.00 per pill!

I want to think there is some crazy high drug called Solarus or something like that is hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

lovesrecess · ‎03-14-2010

Costco had the highest price of every place I checked......guess it depends on what meds you are needing.

lovesrecess · ‎03-14-2010

Medicare always wants the cheapest way out. They changed two of mine and one of DH's to higher tiers....two of mine went from tier 3 to tier 4...try getting those filled for 90 days and at an affordable price...impossible.