Reply
Thu 24 Apr, 2003 03:20 pm
I heard a woman on WBZ radio ( Boston ) last night, who's taking a medication for treatment of cancer. The woman stated that the cost of her chemo-med is $10,000/month and she takes daily injections of this med. Her HMO pays for this med.
Questions?
What medication could this be?
What is the name of her HMO?
The answer to neither question was given on the radio.
Much of the cost derives from determining the characteristics of the particular cancer and working up the precise blend of agents. The medication is usually a complex cocktail.
In 1990 I was on a course of IV Vancomycin for a few weeks. The pharmacy would send me enough IV medication to last a week. I would freeze it, and then defrost it before using it.
Anyhow, one day the visiting nurse took a blood test, and my level of Vancomycin was too high. The MD lowered the prescription dosage. I asked him what to do with the almost a week's worth of the drug that I could not use. He told me to defrost them and dump it in the sink.
I dumped $1200- worth of medication down the sink! (Remember, this was 13 years ago. I wonder what it would cost now!)
It's very expensive and it's one of the few antibiotics that I can tolerate .
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace