my boyfriend P was put on bicillan LA (1.2, 2x wk) a couple months ago. we bought it through our pharmacy, who jumped through the hoops with the manufacturer to get a ten tubex sized box for us. it cost us approx $700+.
since then, our med ins. (which reimburses for some abx) has denied it. P runs out of the original box of ten this coming week, and he needs several more doses (2 or 3) to get him through until his next LLMD appt at the end of the month, when we learn whether or not the doc wants to continue it or not.
the pharmacy will only try to get it for us if we prepay for boxes of ten, which means another $700, when P might not even need most of it.
does any one know where/how we can buy a smaller quantity of it now?
my private mesage function doesn't work, but please feel free to email me at [email protected]
thanks flossie
Posted by Jill E. (Member # 9121) on :
Hi Flossie,
My insurance denied paying for Bicillin, too.
How about getting a box of the pediatric dose, which is 600,000 m.u. each. Your boyfriend would have to have two injections each time to get the right dosage or have a nurse transfer them to a different syringe.
But I'm guessing that the pediatric Bicillin is cheaper, you'd be using up two syringes each time, so you wouldn't have that many left over if he ends up going off Bicillin.
The cheapest price I found Bicillin was $466.80, and then I got other pharmacies to match it when I bought other boxes.
Like you, I had to jump through hurdles.
Jill
Posted by savebabe (Member # 9847) on :
Check with your insurance company about mail order pharmacies. I found out the hard way that I had to order my shots through a speciality pharmacy and that is the only way I could get it covered. Got to love the insurance companies!
Posted by flossie (Member # 3384) on :
hmmm. yeah, i will ask pharmacist about pediatric doses... at least then we'd pay somewhat less if he was taken off it. i think that is very hard to get as well now tho.
our ins co won't pay for it no way, no how. we also had the same experience with them basically pretending they didn't do injectables, and then finding out about the mail order place. they aren't good, but they do occasionally cover heparin etc. but it won't work for the bicillan, unfortunately.
thanks for the good ideas, guys
flossie
Posted by gopats (Member # 5218) on :
I had the same problem with my insurance. They denied it as did their third party drug Medco. My HR department got involved and it turns out a 3rd party handles all injectables and they must be mail ordered. That's what I'm doing next month. I'm not sure what my copay is going to be yet.
I paid the first month up front but wasn't going to be able to continue this. The cost was $650. I got them from Rite Aid.