Questions on ProAirHFA, Proventil HFA and Synthroid

[Pinksink]

My sister has been sick and had to fill a script for ProAirHFA. She did not have a coupon to cover a sizable co pay. She is also on Synthroid which is not covered under her insurance plan since she must be on the brand name version and she must pay full price. Generic does not work for her.
I have since downloaded the ProAir card, but it looks like a coupon plan. Does anyone know of a rebate for this? Also, with regards to the Synthroid anyone have any suggestions.

Finally, My son and I are on inhalers...My son Maxair, which is not covered by the insurance, and I was on generic albuterol before they changed the aeresols. There for we much pay full price. I was able to get the scripts changed to Preventil, but am paying a premium copay for both. I have not been able to find the coupon and or rebate for this that had been previously posted.
It is quite frustrating to find that many of the medications that have worked for me in the past are being phased out by my insurance plan which I pay through the nose for. Everytime my body gets used to one, it gets changed to a non preferred or is not covered all together. I do not understand why we are paying such premiums to have them shuffle around their coverage every time we turn around. It takes enough for the body to adjust to new medications and to get beyond the initial side effects. I would think that it would be costing them more and more by having us jump from one to the other.

Anyway...any suggestions would be appreciated.
BTW...I am a retired gov employee and to make matters worse, have been told, at least by cvs, that their gift card offers are not available to me despite my paying through the nose for the insurance. Of course it is a government run insurance, it is a government retiree plan. Not medicare or medicaid (not that there is anything wrong with these program), but one I am paying through the nose for like any other person paying for their health care.

TIA!

[tracy]

Your sister may be able to arrange coverage of brand Synthroid through her insurance company. Could be it's covered with a penalty for the brad selection, and if it is sometimes plans allow the penalty to be waived if the doctor indicates brand only on the rx. If that option does not work, under most plans she still has the right to appeal the non-coverage. If she has a medical reason for not being able to use the generic, the appeals tend to work. Ask her to call her the CS line on her RX insurance card to ask about it.

Regarding Proventil, it appears the most recent offer for that may have expired. Regardless, check with your rx benefits manager (the CS # on your ID card) to see if there are any other cost-saving opportunities. Many of the federal plans use a mail service; you might find that a workable option.

[jamieco1]

My husband is a pharmaceutical rep for Teva Pharmaceuticals, the makers of ProAir. Email me your mailing address to babylonglegs21@yahoo.com and I will see if he can send you some ProAir coupons!

-Jamie

[sdasilva27]

This post is a few days old so I'm not sure if you're still reading but for your sister, you can have her MD write "DAW Medically Necessary" on the RX. As someone else mentioned, that may waive the extra premium charge (it does with some companies but not all). Her MD could also submit paperwork to her insurance company called a prior authorization, that can also reduce the price of her copay. The MD basically has to say that this is the only medication that works for her and then they have to approve it before they pay for it, depending on the MD and insurance co and how they work together, I've seen this done in hours vs weeks.

Also, get a free drug discount card if you don't have one already. There are a few you can get even if you already have primary insurance, you just tell the person filling the RX to use the discount if the medication isn't covered on your primary insurance. You can also use copay cards or rebates with the discount card.

And last, whomever told you you can't use the gc coupons for your rx's are wrong (unless it's some new policy just with cvs). The disclaimer was intended for people getting free medication/premiums that the government/state takes care of. You have a legit insurance plan that you are paying premiums for, it just so happens that you (or your s.o.) worked for the government. I worked at Walgreens for 4 years as a senior pharm tech to pay my college tuition (well part of it); now I work for the government writing software and I've had to explain the difference to cvs before too (the walgreens here is really slow so they look extremely busy all the time - if I had EVER told someone 2 hours for a prescription, I'd had been canned!)

I understand your frustration and if you, or anyone else, needs help finding a discount card, or has questions, or needs help finding copay cards/rebates, PM me. I actually got spoken to a few times for telling people about them while at work because the store profits weren't as high (that's a long explanation and I don't want this post getting too off topic).