Veterans Administration......

uncle Alan

uncle Alan

Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
1,830
Thank God for the USA & the VA system !


Many stories begin with " You ain't gonna believe this."

I didn't until I visited Walgreens tonight .

Patsy had a heroic dose of chemo yesterday.She received 3 1/2 hours & has given an ampule of medicine for a subcutaneous injection today. It malfunctioned & I almost collapsed when the pharmacist told me it would cost $3,492.00.

Will call Gainesville VAH at 8am 1 June & see if they'll overnight it or if I'll have to drive up.

Friends,what do you think of this ? Outrageous ?


We are blessed !

Uncle [still :confused: ] Alan
 
The price you quoted isn't surprising.


I know the Gainesville VAMC has an Oncology Department and the VAMC Pharmacy should have what you need.

Bigger questions. . . .is your wife is a Vet and enrolled in the VA Healthcare system ?
 
uncle Alan said:
I almost collapsed when the pharmacist told me it would cost $3,492.00.
Click to expand...

I saw one of my mother's bills for chemo therapy. I happened to accompany her to her next treatment, so I asked the pharmacist at the clinic how 1mg, one milligram, of something could cost seven thousand dollars. He explained to me that when some chemicals are mixed together, many different reactions can occur simultaneously producing many different compounds. Typically one, or maybe two, of them account for almost all of the input. This particular drug is NOT one of those dominate products. To produce a milligram of this drug, they produce kilograms of the more dominate products that are not useful and use kilograms of the precursors... one of which is platinum. To produce a few miligrams of this drug, they use kilograms of platinum. Fortunately, most of that platinum can be recovered. But recovering that platinum costs money. And separating the desired miligrams from the "byproduct" kilograms of material is also expensive. Some people wringe their hands about the high costs of drugs, but once you understand the reason, it doesn't seem so outrageous.
 
I hope the vets help you out.

I take a drug via I.V. every eight week. The cost of the drug alone is 4,226.00 per dosage. If it wasn't for insurance I'd be dead.
 
Based on the platinum I'm guessing Cisplatin...which is an orphan drug.

down and dirty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_drug

Orphan drugs costs a lot, along with many chemo drugs and all "biotech" meds.

I believe the most expensive IV bag I ever mixed in a hospital was a chemo misture and cost over $10,000 (actual drug cost).

There was a thread in the Political Forum about doctors or medicine or something healthcare related. A doctor made a great post about how the vast majority of people have no idea the true cost of treatments or medications due to their insurance.
 
GigOne said:
The price you quoted isn't surprising.


I know the Gainesville VAMC has an Oncology Department and the VAMC Pharmacy should have what you need.

Bigger questions. . . .is your wife is a Vet and enrolled in the VA Healthcare system ?
Click to expand...



She lost her papers & VA wouldn't recognize her for years. When she was packing to come with me she found them. Now VA is doing her whole year procedure.


Off to the races....

The medicine she was supposet to take was to beef up her white blood cells. The whole procedure [ simply put ]poisons the victim & other meds counteract the poisons.

Now she is entolled in champus/VA & it'll be smooth sailing as soon as the paperwork gets it's final shuffle .[ up to 1 year ]


Uncle [we'd be broke without VA ] Alan:D
 
Someday they will find a cure for that evil disease..My prayer is for you and Patsy to live long and be healthy...Hope the meds kick some Cancer butt UA

and glad your insured..


Ren
 
zenheretic said:
Based on the platinum I'm guessing Cisplatin...which is an orphan drug.

down and dirty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_drug

Orphan drugs costs a lot, along with many chemo drugs and all "biotech" meds.

I believe the most expensive IV bag I ever mixed in a hospital was a chemo misture and cost over $10,000 (actual drug cost).

There was a thread in the Political Forum about doctors or medicine or something healthcare related. A doctor made a great post about how the vast majority of people have no idea the true cost of treatments or medications due to their insurance.
Click to expand...

My wife's chemo cost around $11,000 per treatment. She required 9 of them over a period of a couple of years. The insurance company refused to pay since they claimed it was "experimental." When all was said and done, the treatments were effective and the insurance company had an epiphany and decided to pay up. Sometimes there IS a happy ending and I hope uncle alan and Patsy have one.
 
uncle Alan said:
She lost her papers & VA wouldn't recognize her for years. When she was packing to come with me she found them. Now VA is doing her whole year procedure.


Off to the races....

The medicine she was supposet to take was to beef up her white blood cells. The whole procedure [ simply put ]poisons the victim & other meds counteract the poisons.

Now she is entolled in champus/VA & it'll be smooth sailing as soon as the paperwork gets it's final shuffle .[ up to 1 year ]


Uncle [we'd be broke without VA ] Alan:D
Click to expand...



FEDX delivered an insulated package the following day & all is well now . We ARE blessed & I thanked God in church & several other times today.




Uncle Alan:D
 
Thank God the VA. got that med. for her!!! I am continuing my prayers!! God bless you both!
 
uncle Alan said:
FEDX delivered an insulated package the following day & all is well now . We ARE blessed & I thanked God in church & several other times today.




Uncle Alan:D
Click to expand...

The overwhelming majority of people you walk by every day are caring and compassionate. They will go the extra mile, even the extra ten miles, when a stranger is in trouble.

Amazing, isn't it? A little something to be thankful for.

Hang in there, Uncle Alan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top