cancer and critical care drug shortage

[GeoFisher]

And if you don't think this crap doesn't happen with providers, I experienced it FIRST hand with my daughter and a campus ran medical center. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to run 1200 dollars in tests for something that she CLEARLY did not have and CLEARLY would have been identified other ways. I questioned the charges, and then met with them and told them to STUFF the claim. I'm on a HSA and they'd have to sue me for it.....

A few days later, I got a letter in the mail that they had made a mistake running such tests, and cut the cost to 250, which I still bitched about, but paid......

If you KNOW what you are paying for, I GUARANTEE you will question the costs.......

Later,

Geo

And for the record........I HATE negotiated rates................HATE them with a passion.

A negotiated rate for X insurance or Y insurance or what I carry should be the SAME for EVERY insurance company. I got a bill for 900 bucks for something else and the negotiated rate was 125, which is what I paid......WTF.....if the cost is 125 or the doc can get away with 125, then THAT is the price.......not the BS inflated price of 900 bucks because some schmuck insurance company Z will arbitrarily pay the 900 bucks.......

BULL CRAP....

Later,

Geo

[psprowler]

A lot of times there are only a handful of manufacturers that make the generic drugs. If one of those manufacturers has to shut down production for whatever reason (raw material shortage, not complying with regulations regarding good manufacturing practices, recalls, etc.) then that puts a major dent in the supply. The other one or two manufacturers can't keep up, and then you get the shortages.

We deal with it every day. For the previously mentioned Compazine, there are only a handful of manufacturers right now. We had to buy mass quantities (for us) of multi-dose vials and do it that way because that is all we could get.

Fentanyl is the big one right now. A common narcotic used for pain and sedation, we can't get any right now, and we are about out. The drug has been around forever, but the only type available from the wholesaler is a huge multi-dose vial with enough in it to put down a herd of elephants. We might have to go to that big vial and waste which *****, but is better than having to reschedule colonoscopies and other procedures because we don't have the drug.

Valium is another difficult to get (at the moment).

It's a real pain in the rear.

Shingles vaccine - yeah you gotta play the game to get that one. The doctor's office will gladly inject you with it, but they don't get re-imbursed when they purchase the drug. That's why you have to pay 200 or 300 bucks out of pocket at the pharmacy and then take it back to the physician's office.

[bassin_bug]

I wonder if that's NO profit or just not the kind of profit the drug companies like seeing? Medicine has seemed to me to be ridiculously sky high for a very VERY long time. Not that I take any worth talking about, but I've seen what my parents have had to pay over the years. All I can say is Lord help us all when we get ill or a little older.

I have a cousin, in his late 30s, who suffers from a rare type of arthritis and requires a special injectable medication that costs $4k per vial which lasts one month. If he doesn't get it, he suffers incredible pain and gets so he is unable to move enough to get up and go to work. He said that his doctor has been unable to find any for him anywhere for this month. He also said he is really scared and the doctor told him he is extremely concerned because the medicine is already in such short supply and laid blame on the pharmaceutical companies.

One of the best and most popular cancer treatment medications is almost out of existence because the manufacturer said they either had, or will soon, stop making it because it is just too expensive to make. I guess things have about reached the point at which a cancer patient will just be allowed to die because their life is no longer valued.