Re: Price of Gleevec going up? Lifetime ins. Max.?

[Guest guest]

What is a lifetime maximum with an Insurance Comp?

Halff

shari3059 <shari3059@...> wrote:

-Hi Lynn, the last prescription I had filled said it cost $3100.00

for a months supply of 400mg I have been noticing it going up every

month for quite a while now. When I started taking it 3 years ago it

was $2700.00 at the same pharmacy I don't understand why it keeps

going up. How may years until we can purchase a generic version?

Does anyone know the answer? I checked what the price would be at Wal-

Mart and it was about the same. Being 46 years old I have a fear

that if I live a long time I will probably reach my lifetime maximum

with my Insurance and won't be old enough for medicare yet. Then

what do you do.

Shari from Kansas

-- In , " Lynn " <petenlynn@...> wrote:

>

> Hi All,

>

> Have any of you noticed if the amount of money that your pharmacy

is

> charging the insurance for Gleevec is going up? My January cost of

a

> month's worth of Gleevec (400 mg/day) was $2,504.68

>

> My February statement said $2,702.95. Same pharmacy!

>

> To me, it's absolutely crazy about a $198.27 or nearly an 8%

increase

> in one month!

>

> What the heck is going on with Novartis? I realize that BMS is

coming

> soon, and that it will take away from Novartis's profits, but this

is

> absolutely unacceptable!

>

> Just venting!

>

> Lynn (Snickersunny)

> DX'd 12/03

> PCRU

>

[Guest guest]

At 05:12 PM 2/4/06 -0800, you wrote:

>What is a lifetime maximum with an Insurance Comp?

>

> Halff

Hi Halff,

Depends on your health insurance policy.....but a lot of them have what

they call " Lifetime Benefits - Plan Limit " ...........and it may be

$1,000,000 or $2,000,000. Once they have paid out this amount of money

towards medical care for you, that is all they will pay out.......then you

essentially do not have medical insurance at that point.

C.

[Guest guest]

Most insurance companies have a lifetime max of 1,000,000. Some are

larger. And I'm not real sure but I don't think that medications are

part of the LTM, we need to check that to be sure. Since Gleevec does

require pre-auth in most cases it possibly could be tacked on to the

LTM, I'll find out Monday for sure.

Amy