Goodbye Enbrel, hello Humira

Rheumy has decided that Enbrel is not working (hasn't been since May!) so she prescribed Humira. She gave me a sample pack and I started it 2 weeks ago. Now I'm down to 5mg/day of prednisone (from 20), so it's looking good!

However, I had to make a special phone call to the insurance company to tell them that I want to use the local pharmacy rather than the mail-order. (Local pharmacy put in claim yesterday and it was rejected.) The rep tried to argue with me until I pointed out that Humira would cover most of my copay and mail-order pharmacy doesn't take the Humira card. When I called the local pharmacy and had them run it again, the claim magically went through. And Humira is covering $45 of my $50 copay!

Why do they make us jump through these hoops?

Thanks for the commiseration.

The good news is that Humira seems to be working! I'm still on 5 mg/day of prednisone, but this morning I had very little pain/inflammation. I'm going to contact my rheumy about tapering down to 2.5.

o_O

They gave you grief for folic acid? Wow. I wouldn't wish RA on anyone, but it's tempting to wish something on the fools who think $ are the bottom line.

I wanted to share my experience in case someone reading has something similar happen. Back when I used to travel a lot, it was common advice that if you talk to a phone rep (hotel, airline, etc.) and you don't like the answer you get, then just hang up and dial again (and hope for a different agent.) It seems the same may be true of the insurance companies.