2 women trying to make a baby

Monday, January 26, 2009

If I off myself, you can blame my insurance company

Caution: a list of gripes is about to ensue!

1) For starters my insurance company only offers $2000 infertility benefits per year with an $8000 lifetime max in that area. As we all know, this is only a drop in the bucket money-wise, but I will take whatever pennies I can get out of them.

2) My insurance only covers 2 of the drugs I need to cycle: lupron and progesterone in oil. (see above for my response to that) The really expensive drug (Meno.pur) is totally not covered and my old shriveled ovaries suck up stims like I wish I could throw back a few martinis.

3) My insurance has always allowed me to use Sch.rafts pharmacy and I have always had wonderful experiences with them. The doctor faxes a script, the pharm calls to verify and bill then the meds arrive in a day or so. No muss, no fuss and one of the easiest parts of IVF.

4) HOWEVER, this time Sch.rafts tells me that my insurance won't pay for them anymore, and they are kind enough to give me the name an number of the pharmacy I can use. I call Pharmacy C and they assure me that they can bill my insurance for the 2 drugs. I have my doc fax them the scripts.... and wait. I hear nothing, start to worry and call the pharmacy to verify. They say that they never got the order. I call the doc who claims they did send the orders. I will spare you the details, but I made several similar calls to both pharmacy and doctor back and forth for the past 2 weeks. Each call is successively louder on my part.

5) Today I finally call my doctor and speak to the patient advocate. I don't like her but she is something of a pit bull. I explain my problem and beg her to follow-up for me. She calls me back to say that now Pharmacy C says that do not cover my meds that Freedom.infertility does and that my scripts have been faxed to them.

6) I call the new pharmacy. They have the scripts, set up an account for me and will have them here on Wednesday. However, I have no idea what this will cost me. I only know that if I have to pay for lupron out-of-pocket, the cost will be $320. Since that is roughly the cost of a whole day of stims, I am hoping that my credit card won't have to take the hit.

7) Oh yeah, this cycle has to be paid for on our credit card, which is something we have avoided up until now.

*banging head on desk and hoping that concussion brings back state of zen-like calm*
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahh! How classically frustrating. Insurance in this country is so far gone. Sorry you have to deal with this.

A said...

Insurance Sucks! I have no fertility coverage at all. I feel your pain. I'm so sorry.

Dagny said...

That sucks.

And you should see my cards....*sigh*

xoxo

Anonymous said...

My insurance paid 85$ towards the IVF cycle. I might try your technique of banging my head on my desk to achieve zen.
I hope when you pay off your card you are pregnant and will feel that it is all worthwhile.

Anonymous said...

Painful.

Anonymous said...

i hate dealing with insurance companies and their arbitrary rules. its so frustrating. hope the meds don't end up being too expensive!