Remicade Infusion at Treatment Center/No Insurance

I wanted to know if anyone else has had to deal with this situation.  I currently have no insurance, have not had insurance since being diagnosed with UC.  I receive my remicade through the pharmaceutical company and get my treatments at a hospital.  They offer financial aid and have usually discounted my bills 100%.  Until recently I started working more and making $1800 a month. Now they are demanding I pay 20% of my bill.  Which is $1800 every two months.  That adds up to $10800 a year.  I'm only making $21000 a year.  There is no way I can afford this.  I am single and have a single income.  If I pay half of my salary for medical bills, I will not be able to afford my other necessary bills, ex: rent, car insurance, car maintenance, groceries, phone, electricity & water.   Can anyone offer some suggestions?  I'm racking my brain on how this can make sense to the billing department.  I've e-mailed and asked and they told me unless I make $11,170 a year I will always be responsible for 20% of my visit.  There are some codes on my billl that make me wonder if they are charging me for my medicine.  I'm just not smart enough to figure it out.  Any insight on this would be wonderfully appreciated.

Thanks.

Red_34. What is the Remi-Start program? I get assistance for Remicade infusion from the mfg. Johnson and Johnson but was not aware they would help with the treatment center bills. Please provide additional info.

Thanks so much for the reply.

Have you tried finding a suitable insurance?

Something does seem off with the numbers. You might be right that the bill includes some pharmacy charge that you say you are not supposed to have. For most infusions with new brand name drugs, the cost of the drug is many times the cost of the procedure.

My iron infusion for example. My doc recommended the newer Feraheme, which is a syringe instead of a drip bag. The cost of the venipuncture ($25), the lidocane ($18), the plastic IV start ($40), a facility fee ($110), and a procedure fee ($99) were only a few hundred before insurance, while the syringe (w/ 510 mg) was $1800. At first there was also 1 hour of recovery/observation time at $370/hr. Now I skip that.

I have 20% co-insurance, so I pay about $230 each time. Unfortunately over the past 18 months, I have had to get iron about 15 times.

Still, the cost of putting a line into your vein and the supplies used should not be much more for Remicade than any other drug. If it has to drip slowly and you are paying for a procedure room for 1-2 hours, that can add considerable, but not as high dollars as you report.

You should request an itemized bill and then make sure you understand each cost. If there is a pharmacy cost, that may be the answer.

I understood that the Remicade was not supposed to be on the bill because of an an arrangement with the manufacturer.

the IV therapy itself should not be much different in cost than other IV meds.