Rick on February 28th, 2009

You may think your pharmaceutical expenses and drug costs are high. They are.
Part of the reason is that drugs are made by corporations that must return value to shareholders. To do this, they must sell drugs. To sell drugs, pharmaceutical companies have paid doctors to promote their drugs. The money paid [...]

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Rick on December 14th, 2008

I’ve written before about my annual pre-authorization hassles for Provigil®.  You can read more in “MS Medications, Insurance Coverage and 2 Ounces of Gold“.
This year I learned about a new tool.  It’s called a “plan sponsor override“.  And, in my experience, it works.
Here’s how it worked.
First, Provigil is not a Food and Drug Administration-approved medication [...]

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Rick on February 28th, 2008

MSNBC.com has a piece this morning about the Multiple Sclerosis drug Tysabri® (natalizumab). The drugmakers have issued warnings to doctors because Tysabri is causing significant liver damage to some patients who take it. In some patients the damage occurred as early as six days after beginning the treatment.
MSNBC.com : Multiple sclerosis drug [...]

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Rick on February 5th, 2008

When you pick up medications from the pharmacy, the drugs look so nice and clean.  Certainly, medications must be manufactured with the most stringent quality controls to ensure purity.  That’s probably why they’re so expensive. Right?  And if you’re like me, the high cost of medications does have the small positive effect [...]

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Rick on January 29th, 2008

While the benefits of early and long-term MS therapy have been documented, there are questions about MS medication I can’t help but ask.
First, why are the costs for the 4 MS therapies so similar?
I’ve just checked the prices on Drugstore.com for a typical one-month supply of each of the four MS “therapies”. Here is [...]

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Rick on November 4th, 2007

Use the FDA’s MedWatch for the Latest Drug Safety Information. If a medication you take requires additional warnings, you can learn about it on this web site of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
MedWatch is the FDA’s web site for reporting current medication safety information about drugs and medical products which are regulated by [...]

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I called the health insurance company’s 800 number today to check on the status of the Provigil coverage review. The inquiry was quick and easy because I had the case number handy (remember the caregiver tip: keep good records). The coverage has been approved for another 12 month period.
I’ll write a “thank you” letter to [...]

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