Follistim Prescribed. HELP!

lillinzlou

I just talked to the nurse at my RE's. He has prescribed me 75iu of Follistim. It looks like they order 1800iu's just to be sure you have enough. This is going to take at least $2,400 out of our 10k cap. YIKES! The IUI itself will be about 2-3k. It looks like worst case sinnario, we'll get 1.5 cylces out of that! Best case, 2.5. I am SO nervous! Does anyone have experience with Follistim at this dosage? How did it go? How did you respond? Did you have any side effects?

JMay

I don't have experience with Follistim, but your IUI cost seems really high - I could see reaching 3K for a cycle by combining a 2400 med + a $600 IUI, but not 2-3K for the IUI itself.  The most I've ever been quoted for the IUI procedure at 4 different offices was 850.  Is it because you are near a big city?  I hope for your sake that's not how much it will be!!!  I'm pulling for you Lil!!!

lillinzlou

Really?! Oh, crap! Maybe I should call around! They said this amount wasfor bw, us, and the actual procedure. I never thought that it might be high.Looks like i'm going to start shopping!

danielle_0330

Have you checked your prescription coverage to see if Follistim is a covered medication? I only paid $90 fo my follistim which was my prescription copay.  I had 600iu vials and they ordered me 4 which would have been $2088 if it was not covered under my prescription coverage.

lillinzlou

danielle_0330:

Have you checked your prescription coverage to see if Follistim is a covered medication? I only paid $90 fo my follistim which was my prescription copay.  I had 600iu vials and they ordered me 4 which would have been $2088 if it was not covered under my prescription coverage.

I called my insurance today and they said that it goes under my IF coverage and takes away from my maximum. But, it shows that it is covered by my prescription coverage, too. The pharmacy I'm working with is looking into it now.

lillinzlou

JMay:

I don't have experience with Follistim, but your IUI cost seems really high - I could see reaching 3K for a cycle by combining a 2400 med + a $600 IUI, but not 2-3K for the IUI itself.  The most I've ever been quoted for the IUI procedure at 4 different offices was 850.  Is it because you are near a big city?  I hope for your sake that's not how much it will be!!!  I'm pulling for you Lil!!!

I called around and this number is pretty typical for u/s, monitoring and insemination. The number decreases by about half when paying out of pocket. But this is what they charge the insurance. Basically, everyone said that we would have to charge the insurance to see what they would actually pay. I hate how no one knows the right answers!

JMay

lillinzlou:

JMay:

I don't have experience with Follistim, but your IUI cost seems really high - I could see reaching 3K for a cycle by combining a 2400 med + a $600 IUI, but not 2-3K for the IUI itself.  The most I've ever been quoted for the IUI procedure at 4 different offices was 850.  Is it because you are near a big city?  I hope for your sake that's not how much it will be!!!  I'm pulling for you Lil!!!

I called around and this number is pretty typical for u/s, monitoring and insemination. The number decreases by about half when paying out of pocket. But this is what they charge the insurance. Basically, everyone said that we would have to charge the insurance to see what they would actually pay. I hate how no one knows the right answers!

Ahhh... that would be the difference.  I've always been OOP.  I'm so sorry to have made you do more legwork!  Well, the first one is going to work, so you don't have to worry about the maximum.    Sorry again for making you spend time on that!

jtorgersen

I'm a little slow at reading this board these days...but 75 seems low for Follistim...when I did my 3 IUIs I was at 150 for several days (and one of my friends who had success with her 2nd IUI was at 225).  Then again, each person responds differently (and my dr. didn't expect me to respond well so she said she put me on a high dose to begin with - towards the end of the cyle I went down to 100 for the last two days)...

As far as the cost...my RE initially charged the wrong insurance (my medical vs. prescription) so for 4 boxes of Follistim & 4 boxes (I think) of Ovidrel I had to intially put out around $3.5k...got reimbursed some of that but still had about $2.2K OOP (until I got my insurance screwup fixed)...