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Maybe this should be a new thread, but does anyone on this forum know what kind of co-pays occur for Radicava with private insurance (non-Medicare)?
My experience when I was working as a rheumatologist, prescribing biological infusion drugs for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, was that if they had Medicare plus a secondary insurance, they had virtually no out of pocket cost. However, if they had private insurance such as Blue Cross, but no Medicare, the out of pocket costs were exorbitant. If they had Medicare without a supplement, they were screwed. I'm assuming Radicava would be similar in that it is an IV therapy which can be billed under Medicare part B.
Interestingly, the opposite is true for expensive oral or injection drugs. I.e. They are often unaffordable for Medicare patients because they hit the donut hole quickly trying to buy these drugs through Part D, and the out of pocket costs in the donut hole are quite high (at least $3000 a year, as of a couple years ago).
My experience when I was working as a rheumatologist, prescribing biological infusion drugs for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, was that if they had Medicare plus a secondary insurance, they had virtually no out of pocket cost. However, if they had private insurance such as Blue Cross, but no Medicare, the out of pocket costs were exorbitant. If they had Medicare without a supplement, they were screwed. I'm assuming Radicava would be similar in that it is an IV therapy which can be billed under Medicare part B.
Interestingly, the opposite is true for expensive oral or injection drugs. I.e. They are often unaffordable for Medicare patients because they hit the donut hole quickly trying to buy these drugs through Part D, and the out of pocket costs in the donut hole are quite high (at least $3000 a year, as of a couple years ago).