Oncology Drug Racket

good point

Reminds me of a GP friend of mine who said that if he ever specialised, he would become a dermatologist, because he would never be woken by an emergency in the middle of the night, very few of his patients would die and very few would ever be cured.

Chas

Steve, thanks for the link.  Very interesting.

quincy17 said...
My 4month Lupron injection price doubled from $7,000 to $14,000 after a big hospital bought out my local cancer center. Answer me that . . . Q

Quincy, that's amazing! My 6 month shots at Vanderbilt have been $3000 each.

You are in the US, right? Those are US dollars?

Yep, those are US $ all right, and it just went up to $15,500. I was told about that hospital ruling but still, that's all messed up and has nothing to do with the money I paid into FICA for 35 years. That was for my health plan, not an indigents or illegal immigrants health care. That should be covered somewhere else if they want to. I'm tired of my SSA and my FICA payments going to wherever else . . . Q

It was a shocking expose! My 3 month lupron is charged by my Urologist at $3500 but Medicare pays only about $600 with medi gap paying about $80. So Medicare does not pay whatever the doctor charges at least in the case of part B coverage. The gouging must be occurring with Medicare part D prescriptions not administered by a medical practicioner but taken directly by the patient. This different pricing and reimbursement process for part A and part B needs to be corrected!!!!!! Of course folks not on Medicare are getting the shaft big time.
Bob

Thank goodness for the Medical Benefits Scheme here in Australia.

My 3 monthly Zoladex injections cost me the grand sum of AU$6 each time. Admittedly I do get a discount because of age and other conditions, but even the average Joe in the street would only pay AU$30.

The price listed on the packaging is AU$1,110.

Maybe that is why we are known as "The Lucky Country"

When I moved from my Urologist to an Oncologist as my primary doctor, I expected my Oncologist would take over administering my Lupron injections...But no, he sends me back to the Urologist for the injection..I asked him why..He replied "You don't want to know"...I believe the Urologist billed the 6 month shot at $2300.00..Originally, I was on Eligard..But the last time it was changed to Lupron..I asked why? The answer was "We are having trouble getting reimbursed for Eligard, Lupron is the same drug and it's easier to administer". End of conversation. You KNOW there is all sorts of stuff going on backstage..Who supplies the drugs, who administers them, this is all fought over real estate..

Casodex, (bicalutamide) is another example. The retail price of this drug ranges from $0.50 per pill to $7.75 per 50mg pill depending on where you buy it...Some are charged $45 for a 90 day supply while others are gouged $695.00 for the same 90 day script. Insurance programs muddy the water so consumers really don't know what things cost..All they are aware of is their co-pay...

Steve, thanks for posting the link to the 60 minutes broadcast..

We consider ourselves lucky Nick's medicare advantage plan (Kaiser in NorCal) covers Lupron and small co-pay on Casodex. Both are on the formulary. The prices you all quote horrify me--we would be broke quick. . .i checked--Xtandi on formulary but not Provenge. Guess we will cross those drug bridges when we come to them.

Is it my imagination or has HW become much more liberal in its interpretation of what constitutes "political" comments or rules violations? All I know is that a few years ago I was castigated for comments that were much more innocuous than some of the comments in this thread.

I don't know if this trend is real or just a personal impression, and if there is, indeed, such a trend, I also am not sure if it's good or bad, but I DO know I've seen moderators intervene in the past on threads that were a lot less controversial.

However, I do know this: if "60 Minutes" said something, it must be true.

I guess I'm old enough to remember when making a profit was considered good business and when the entity least trusted was big government. I'm also old enough to have learned that things always look different when it's our ox that's being gored, and especially when it's our lives that are on the line and our disease that's underfunded. Times change. Or maybe I'm just being especially curmudgeonly this morning. :)