Cat-a-Tonic
Super Moderator
For those in the US - anybody else sick and tired of getting jerked around over prescription drug prices and coverage? It's seriously frustrating sometimes and right now my prescription drug coverage provider is kind of screwing me over.
My frustration right now is getting Ondansetron (generic Zofran, an anti-nausea med) covered. This has been ongoing since I've been ill. When I first got ill in 2009, I had Express Scripts as my prescription drug coverage provider. They have a clause or whatever that says that all generics are only $10 per refill. Sounds great, right? But they have a loophole, which is that they don't have to allow you to have the full refill. Definitely not great. My GP had ordered me refills of 30 tablets of Ondansetron, but Express Scripts decided to only allow me to have 10 tablets per refill rather than 30. So that's a dollar a pill, which is not inexpensive. And sometimes I need to take 2 tablets to quell the nausea, and if it's bad then I need to do that sometimes two or three times per day. So that obviously adds up really quickly. There were times in the past when I was really broke and had to ask myself if it was worth it to essentially spend a couple bucks to get rid of the nausea, or if I could just deal with it instead. Not fun. Plus I had to go to the pharmacy really frequently just to get refills, because 10 tablets didn't last me very long at all - even when I was questioning whether or not I could afford to take a tablet or deal with the nausea.
So I did that for quite awhile. Then at one point, my company changed our insurance benefits somewhat and my prescription drug coverage provider became Medco. Medco was so much better! They would actually allow me to have 30 or even 90 Ondansetron tablets for my $10 co-pay! So I really liked Medco. But, after about a year of having them as my provider, they freaking got bought out by Express Scripts. Ughhhh.
So yeah, now I'm stuck with Express Scripts again and no hope of going back to Medco because they no longer exist, they got absorbed into Express Scripts. For awhile, almost a full year, I was still able to get the Medco level of coverage, on my last refill of Ondansetron I was still able to get 90 tablets for $10. But then today I went to the pharmacy to get another refill, and the pharmacist told me that Express Scripts is now only covering 9 tablets for my $10 co-pay. Uh, seriously?? That's more than a dollar per tablet, more expensive than ever before, I'm so mad! I wrote an email to Express Scripts just now asking what gives, but with it being almost xmas I don't expect a response anytime soon, and I don't expect them to make an exception for me either. Ugh, just so frustrated. I'm dreading having to go back to my old ways of being at the pharmacy every other week to refill that damn prescription, plus having to go back to questioning whether I can deal with the nausea or if I have to take a tablet. Ugh ugh ugh. As if it wasn't already frustrating enough, all the crap we go through with having a chronic illness. Add one more frustration to the pile.
My frustration right now is getting Ondansetron (generic Zofran, an anti-nausea med) covered. This has been ongoing since I've been ill. When I first got ill in 2009, I had Express Scripts as my prescription drug coverage provider. They have a clause or whatever that says that all generics are only $10 per refill. Sounds great, right? But they have a loophole, which is that they don't have to allow you to have the full refill. Definitely not great. My GP had ordered me refills of 30 tablets of Ondansetron, but Express Scripts decided to only allow me to have 10 tablets per refill rather than 30. So that's a dollar a pill, which is not inexpensive. And sometimes I need to take 2 tablets to quell the nausea, and if it's bad then I need to do that sometimes two or three times per day. So that obviously adds up really quickly. There were times in the past when I was really broke and had to ask myself if it was worth it to essentially spend a couple bucks to get rid of the nausea, or if I could just deal with it instead. Not fun. Plus I had to go to the pharmacy really frequently just to get refills, because 10 tablets didn't last me very long at all - even when I was questioning whether or not I could afford to take a tablet or deal with the nausea.
So I did that for quite awhile. Then at one point, my company changed our insurance benefits somewhat and my prescription drug coverage provider became Medco. Medco was so much better! They would actually allow me to have 30 or even 90 Ondansetron tablets for my $10 co-pay! So I really liked Medco. But, after about a year of having them as my provider, they freaking got bought out by Express Scripts. Ughhhh.
So yeah, now I'm stuck with Express Scripts again and no hope of going back to Medco because they no longer exist, they got absorbed into Express Scripts. For awhile, almost a full year, I was still able to get the Medco level of coverage, on my last refill of Ondansetron I was still able to get 90 tablets for $10. But then today I went to the pharmacy to get another refill, and the pharmacist told me that Express Scripts is now only covering 9 tablets for my $10 co-pay. Uh, seriously?? That's more than a dollar per tablet, more expensive than ever before, I'm so mad! I wrote an email to Express Scripts just now asking what gives, but with it being almost xmas I don't expect a response anytime soon, and I don't expect them to make an exception for me either. Ugh, just so frustrated. I'm dreading having to go back to my old ways of being at the pharmacy every other week to refill that damn prescription, plus having to go back to questioning whether I can deal with the nausea or if I have to take a tablet. Ugh ugh ugh. As if it wasn't already frustrating enough, all the crap we go through with having a chronic illness. Add one more frustration to the pile.