help me please

[kw800]

I was diagnosed about 14 years ago. I haven't had any treatment. I've been looking for Doctors but I don't even know where to start. My job doesn't give me insurance so I will have to pay myself. I live in central NJ. Anyone have any suggestions?

[nygirl7]

You really do not want to pay for treatment yourself.  The meds for a typical 48 week course (JUST the interferon and ribavirin) are about $20,000.  Plus we need many other meds - some of which are TREMENDOUSLY expensive (a box of epogen to combat the anemia is $6,000 for only ten shots) plus ambien, neupogen, antidepressents etc etc etc.

I figure my 72 weeks of treatment came to about 200k.

Please do try and find a doctor / clinic who will help you enroll in one of the clinical trials. A doctor can give you a good hand with this since you are new to the whole thing. They are having GREAT success with one of the current drugs and another looks very promising.

If there is any way you can swing the biopsy, you might find that you have very little liver damage and can afford to 'watch and wait'.  This means you have a biopsy every few years and can wait for the newer meds or a change in circumstance and you might have insurance.  You could always get a job to get insurance if you have time.  Still....every day good things are happening with hepC and if you don't want to wait..........a trial will be the way to go.

Good luck.

[pjhep80]

if you get accepted on a trial they will pay for the biop also

[Mary4now]

Hi, you may be able to negotiate price for a biopsy and a consultation with a good hepatologist.  Then you will have a better idea of your options.  You can look around for a study which will take care of meds and medical care.  There is probably a support group somewhere in your area that could help direct you, or the doc that you see could help.
My hepatologist was $150.00 my biopsy was close to 3K, but I negotiated around 1K.
Hospitals are getting next to nothing lots of times w/ insurance co. so they may prefer you to pay.  Go talk with them after you find you hepatologist....... Have a list of questions and write everything down that he/she says.

[desrt]

Consider getting a biopsy before you do anything. Find out what condition your liver is in and how urgent it is to treat. A clinical trial may cover the cost of a pre-tx biopsy, but I don't know what the $$ consequences would be if you decided not to tx.

[fretboard]

Yes, you can get treated for free thru a clinical trial.  Just go to clinicaltrials.gov and do a search.  Also there are some drug companies that help by giving free drugs to the most qualified, but I don't know the criteria or information and I think you may be better off looking for a trial to get into.  good luck