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Insurance no longer covers Colazal - ideas??

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 5/6/2015 5:16 AM (GMT 0)
Congrats on refill, MNBeachgal! Do the bottles indicate a Salix expiration date? I'm convinced that we need a patient advocacy group to monitor the pharmaceuticals/insurers RE prescription drug distribution in the U.S. We hear from other forum members that Walmart & Safeway dispense brandname Colazal at lower cost than we are charged: why? Such an exploitative system ... / Old Hat (34 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 5/6/2015 10:02 AM (GMT 0)

jazzgtrl4 said...
I switched my probiotic and went into a flare

jazzgtrl4, not to divert, what probiotic did you change from and which one caused the flare?
Posted 5/6/2015 3:27 PM (GMT 0)

hwarrior said...

jazzgtrl4 said...
I switched my probiotic and went into a flare

jazzgtrl4, not to divert, what probiotic did you change from and which one caused the flare?

HI, i was on that cheap Phillips colon health for years! would get like 60 of them at Costco for cheap..They stopped carrying it so i switched to Align. Thought oh no big deal...Right?! Wrong. 2 weeks later bam..stated seeing symptoms and right into a flare. unreal.
Posted 5/6/2015 7:46 PM (GMT 0)

jazzgtrl4 said...

HI, i was on that cheap Phillips colon health for years! would get like 60 of them at Costco for cheap..They stopped carrying it so i switched to Align. Thought oh no big deal...Right?! Wrong. 2 weeks later bam..stated seeing symptoms and right into a flare. unreal.

Oh yes, the probiotic problems sound too familiar. Perhaps the cheap Philips was so weak it didn't do much at all. In that case may be you don't need any probiotics! Mutaflor worsened my flare. Those things are a roll of a dice.
Posted 5/7/2015 4:53 AM (GMT 0)
Back on the topic of Rx insurance relevant to Colazal: today's NY Times has an article edited by David Leonhardt on "cost sharing" for meds applied to patients with chronic illness. It says essentially that studies have determined that obliging such patients to contribute more to the costs of their needed meds can backfire when they cut back, drop, or switch meds and get sicker, even to the point of requiring hospitalization-- and ultimately this results in higher health insurance costs overall, including to the government. Wishing the millionaires in Congress would read this ... / Old Hat (34 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 5/11/2015 8:30 PM (GMT 0)
Old Hat, the expiration date on my bottles is 11/17.
Interesting about the article. That is the exact same argument I gave to UHC when I submitted my appeal for them to cover Colazal at the normal rate. I noted that if I stopped taking the drug which has worked for years, and switched to another drug I could end up getting sicker, possibly going on Humira (much more expensive) or ending up in the hospital. All coming at a much greater cost to them. No luck on convincing the insurance companies though. They don't think long term, only short term in that we will just stop getting the medication and they will no longer need to pay for it.
Posted 5/12/2015 4:38 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for exp-date, MNBeachgal. The most advanced date I ever got so far was 6/17 (early last yr) then Express scripts dug into a 2/16 supply that they have sent me in my last 4 refills! Grrrrrrrrr! The med distribution seems pretty arbitrary: they send mine from Ohio, but Deltaforce, who lives ca. 20 miles north of me, posted in a different thread that they send his generic from NJ warehouse. This makes no sense because there are surely more UCers in my area than in eastern Ohio so they should also be storing brandname in NJ. Did you hear anything from Senator Klobuchar's office? / Old Hat (34 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 5/12/2015 2:53 PM (GMT 0)
I never did hear back from Sen Klobuchar's office. Not sure if the note went through since the site kept erroring out, or if they just didn't reply. I could try writing again but I think we need a group of people to start writing these places so they know it's not just an isolated incident.
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