Meds

TrixieGirl82 · November 2012

OMG!!! Found out today that my out of pocket cost for my IVF meds will be $5,756 Whats normal for others that have to pay oop? They told me the follistim on its own is 3,500! Still in shock I was expecting about $3,000 total. Baseline ultrasound and bloodwork tomorrow. Prayers please-this will be our only shot, we wont be able to afford another round

And to top it off my husbands insurance rep says "well don't you already have a child?" My husband has a child from his previous marriage-I love him as though he were my own-but I still want to have a child-in addition that is really none of her f%*^ing buisness. What a day! Thinking about all of my other IVF and FET buddies-wishing everyone the best of luck. Goodnight!

WindyCity33 · November 2012

We're fortunate that a large chuunk of our meds were covered by insurance (since we hit our very high deductible early in the year). When meds were delievered they came with a receipt that showed retail price without insurance and it was somewhere in the $5k range.

ETA: There are various places to go and find some meds cheaper. My brain is mush right now and I can't think of any of the sites but they're out there. I have a friend who ordered from Europe and was able to save quite a bit on injectibles. Might be worth the investigation.

Laurakat81 · November 2012

Mine was about $4k for 10 vials of Menopur (was told I'd need 8, had to buy in groups of 5 and only used 4) and 1800 units of Gonal-F, plus the Lupron, dexamethasone, 4 progesterone vials, e2v/progesterone supps and the hCG trigger.

Crystal120410 · November 2012

My initial order for IVF was 6k then a week later I had to refill my injectables for another 4k. Yes I am 100 percent out of pocket.

twistsandturnsto2 · November 2012

Wow! My total was right around the $3,000-$3,100 mark for all my meds for the entire cycle. My order of Follistim consisted of 5 boxes of 600 unit vials and I have been told that it will get me through to ER.

What sort of protocol are you on? Who are you going through to get your meds?

2MamazInSeattle · November 2012

I think Walgreens has a program my clinic signed me up for which knocked down my donor's meds from $5k to around $3K (I'm using an egg donor and had to pay for her meds out of pocket). Different pharmacies have different prices too...one had Follistim at $4k the other was less than $3. Shop around, it made a difference.

pbj1975 · November 2012

I'm in denial about how much the drugs cost. We had to buy more menopur. We needed 12, but had to buy 15 as they come in boxes of 5. 1,700!!!!!! The best part? We only used 4 of them. I triggered after using the 4.

And how completely inappropriate of that insurance rep! Some people!!!

kflynn81 · November 2012

We have the most awful insurance when it comes to routine things but for some reason, and I'm ever so grateful, the IF coverage is awesome. We meet the deductible and then pay 80% with a $1,000 max out of pocket. Well.....the deductible AND the max OOP were both met last year in March after my first shipment of Menopur. My last box of IVF meds, the delivery service told me its so important to be home because there were $7800 worth of medications in there....HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER!!!! Plus, the new meds I'm going to be adding in this cycle cost $3800 alone!!! WTF!!! Why are these things so expensive, its crazy!!!

What a jerk for that insurance rep to say something like that to you too....some people are real a**hats

Good luck with your cycle!!

lisa41982 · November 2012

I'm not sure if there is a savings program for follistim, but I know that there is one for Gonal-F for both people who have insurance and people who are OOP.

https://www.fertilitylifelines.com/payingfortreatment/selfpaysavings.jsp

It would require asking your doctor if you can switch, but it might be worth it to ask?

freeman2121 · November 2012

There was someone who posted on here awhile ago the different med prices at different pharmacies for comparison. I will try and find it for you. I don't know why there is such a difference from one place to the next?

RoadToFertility · November 2012

TrixieGirl82:
OMG!!! Found out today that my out of pocket cost for my IVF meds will be $5,756 Whats normal for others that have to pay oop? They told me the follistim on its own is 3,500! Still in shock I was expecting about $3,000 total. Baseline ultrasound and bloodwork tomorrow. Prayers please-this will be our only shot, we wont be able to afford another round And to top it off my husbands insurance rep says "well don't you already have a child?" My husband has a child from his previous marriage-I love him as though he were my own-but I still want to have a child-in addition that is really none of her f%*^ing buisness. What a day! Thinking about all of my other IVF and FET buddies-wishing everyone the best of luck. Goodnight!

Wow, how insensitive of that rep to say something like that! Seriously..so rude. Good luck with everything!

asilwhite · November 2012

lisa41982:
I'm not sure if there is a savings program for follistim, but I know that there is one for Gonal-F for both people who have insurance and people who are OOP.
https://www.fertilitylifelines.com/payingfortreatment/selfpaysavings.jsp
It would require asking your doctor if you can switch, but it might be worth it to ask?

This - I know Gonal-F is generally cheaper than Follistim. On Free.dom.Fer.tility pharmacy the Gonal-F for 900iu is $836 and for Follistim it's closer to $1300, so big price difference when OOP. Ask your RE if you can switch.

destinyr61309 · November 2012

I hope it's okay that I post here, but I just thought I'd share my med prices.

I went through Wal.greens Specialty, which cost an extra few bucks to enroll in their discount program...
I paid:
$169 for Lupron
$762 for a 900 iu vial of Follistim (was told I'd need a refill but I didn't)
$624 for 8 vials of Menopur (I already had a few)
$60 for HCG trigger
$10 (copay) for PIO

Wal.greens is the cheapest for Follistim, at least when I was looking in Sept/Oct

Good luck!

ctnl81 · November 2012

We have a $2500 lifetime max on infertility drugs and ended up paying another $2500 out of pocket (and I don't have my PIO yet, either!) for our first round. So it was right around $5000. But I think part of the problem was that the insurance specialty pharmacy charged us more than another one would for the OOP stuff - if we have to do a second round we'll be completely OOP for meds by then, so we're definitely going to look elsewhere.

Maybe Joleisa · November 2012

My nurse thought I had prescription coverage when she ordered my meds for my first cycle, which came to somewhere around $8,700 from Cigna. Indifferent When I told her we were OOP, she called my prescriptions into Free.dom Fert Ph.armacy and they signed me up for whatever rebate programs they had. (Small in comparison to the meds, but every bit helps.) I was also able to order meds as I needed them. I ordered enough for 8 days of stims and then went from there ordering meds a couple more times later in the cycle. They have free overnight shipping--only tricky part is Fed Ex doesn't deliver on Sundays, so I had to factor that in. (I also live in an area where there are a few Specialty Pharmacies where I could pick up meds in an emergency--they'd just cost more than Freedom.) Cycle one I ended up with 4 vials of Menopur leftover--not bad.

Not sure how Follistim works, but Gonal-F contains overfill. My nurse ordered the smaller dosage vials, as they contain a larger proportion of overfill compared to the larger dosage vials. Here is about what I remember:

Gonal-F prefilled 300 iu pen contains 75-85ius overfill--use a needle and McGuyver that liquid gold outta there!

Gonal-F 450 multidose vial contains about 600 ius, so 150 ius overfill

Gonal-F 1050 multidose vial contains about 1200 ius, so 150 ius overfill (thus the 450 vials are more economical, because you'll get more overfill out of them)

Trippleb · November 2012

My first ivf my meds were close to the 8k range. They stimmed me with the max amount of meds from the get-go. One thing that would have saved us tons of money was that the nurse had me order eveything in advance of starting the ivf. We went straight to IVF so I just didn't know any better. Don't order everything to start with. Most pharmacy's overnight meds and your'll be able to gage a little bit as you go along on what you will need.

For instance my nurse had me order 8 bottles of PIO. We never made it transfer. I've been to three RE since and no other RE that I worked with uses PIO. Just a huge waste of money.

Meds

Re: Meds

NTNP 2009-2012 TTC since 2012:

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