Procrit Assistance

[sunshine007]

Who can I call to get assistance with covering the costs of Procrit.  My copays are over $500/month for the weekly injections.  Added up with the cost of the other meds and I'm about $1000/month.  I also might have to go on Neupogen which I absolutely couldn't afford without assistance.  I tried calling Health Well Foundation but they said they only cover anemia meds for cemo induced anemia.  The manufacturer of the Procirt said they won't cover it if you have any type of insurance.  Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Dazed345]

Does medicare cover procrit for ESRD patients?

[ladybug52]

Sunshine eventually got procrit from her dr I believe. Have you asked your Dr for some one to contact or the National Kidney foundation?

I hate our health system, and I'm not trying to make a political statement.
It's amazing how many people think that if you don't have ins. you can get medicaid, or that if you have ins you are able to get the medicine or tx you need.

[gink650]

Just so you know, Health Well Foundation completely blew me off. Never responded to me at all. I need Procrit for Renal Failure and my co-pay is only 100 bucks a month, but I still can't afford it, so I'm just not getting the shots. What can I do? I don't want to pay and pay and pay and then say, okay, now I have to stop because I can't pay my rent, but thanks for the few months of Procrit. That's crazy. I need a real way to offset this cost. Everything I-Horn said is correct. Amgen, nor procrit line will help because you're covered already.

[sunshine007]

When I called they turned me down since I have insurance (crappy as it may be) but they referred me over to two foundations for co-pay assistance.  One is full and the other doesn't help with our type of anemia (since it's not from Chemo or Renal failure).  They must be doing well enough that they don't need to be charitable.  Thanks so much for your suggestions anyway!

[l-horn]

I did not. But I think they pro-rate. It's worth a shot.

[sunshine007]

Did you have insurance coverage during this time?

[l-horn]

http://www.procritline.com/patientassist/patient.assist.form.PDF


I printed that and filled it out, took it to my doc and he filled out his half, faxxed it in and I had procrit within 10 days.

[sunshine007]

So far the only thing that I've found out is that I'm a lost cause.

Due to having insurance, the makers of Procrit will not give me any assistance.  There are two major foundatons out there, but one (Patient Access Network 866-316-7263) is not taking any new clients.  The other one (Health Well Foundation) doesn't cover our type of anemia.  The anemia has to be from chemo or renal failure.

Your suggestion to call Amgen was the only hope I have.  They were very responsive and faxed me out an application already.  I've put a call into my NP to see if I can be switched over to Aranesp when the Procrit runs out.  Amgen didn't promise to cover me as they usually only give assitance to people without insurance, but they said they could possible make an exception.  They were very nice and seemed to want to work with me.  Thanks for your help (once again)!!!

[sunshine007]

I do have horrible insurance.  My husband and I are self employed and when I took this insurance I wanted it really for our 3 kids.  I took the cheapest per month just so the kids would have reasonable co-pays at their Dr offices.  My husband I have $5000/major medical copays and obviously the rx copays aren't that great (I pay about 25% - 30% of the cash price).  

Little did I know 3 months later I would be diagnosed with HCV.  I would have taken the better insurance :)

I will get on your suggestions and let you know what I find out.  Thanks for the quick responses!!

[nygirl7]

You can go to procrit.com and call their patient assistance number.  Procrit costs about $6,000.00 a box and so maybe that is why your copay is so high (although On Aetna mine was only the standard $10!!!) but I would try the drug company directly - these days they are VERY helpful and WANT to get us the drugs.

Also I see that commercial on tv all the time for that assistance program which of coruse the name just flew out of my head (so now I have to THINK yuck!!) which says it's so great.

Maybe something like that (because you DO have insurance and one of the pre-requisites is usually that you DONT have insurance) would be the way to go.  You know that commercial with the truck driving and they say "we've already helped this many people with their drug coverage) GOSH why can't I think of it right now!!!

I think honestly that might be what you need to do to help.

You must have horrible insurance because I've never heard of it costing anybody this much!

[FlGuy]

You might also check to see if Amgen has a patient assistance program.  Amgen make Aranesp, which is similar to Procrit.  You can start at amgen.com or aranesp.com