Posted by King Vultan on March 10, 2004, at 17:19:08
In reply to meds questions, posted by Jhall131 on March 10, 2004, at 16:36:12
> I was taking 75 mgs of effexor once a day and my insurance copay was $25. Now i am taking it twice a day and i went to pick up my medicine and they told me for a month's supply (60) it will cost me $50! I need to take the medicine, but can't afford $50 a month and the doctor may need to increase my meds even more. I am very new to this and don't know what i should do. Are they charging me for the extra pills and if that's the case can the doctor just prescribe me one pill, but at the higher dose. I hope i am making sense. Maybe someone is going through this now and can give me some advise. Please help. This is terrible when you have to take the medicine or you will get sick. I am having anxiety attacks over this!!!
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> jamie
There are two different types of copays: percentage and flat rate. If you are having to pay more for two pills compared to one, it sounds like you may be paying based on a percentage; however, the amounts you indicate of $25 and $50 are more typical of flat rate copays. You need to look into exactly how your insurance works. If the amount you pay is based on a percentage, I would go to a site on the internet like Walgreen's to get an idea of how the costs of the various dosages compare and work out a gameplan in order to minimize your costs. Generally, the higher the dosage, the better a bargain a drug is. If it's a non extended release formulation, you can also cut pills into two to try to minimize costs, but this is probably a moot point in your particular case.If you're taking Effexor XR, I think 1 x 150 is cheaper than 2 x 75. However, taking 1 x 150 is not necessarily the same as taking 2 x 75 in regard to some of the side effects, as you would be experiencing them more intensely once a day as compared to less intensely twice a day. I say this because Effexor would tend to make me sleepy in the hours immediately after taking it, and I know it affects at least some other people in the same way.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:323004
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040308/msgs/323015.html