Co-Payment Assistance?

After almost 2 years of beginning and weaning off Prednisone without any long term results (only last about a month before my platelets plummit) I decided to go to a well known hospital specializing in many cancers/diseases. The specialist there gave me a list of options to try from step 1-step5; step 1 being Prednisone, step 2 being the IVIG, step 3 being rituxan, step 4 spleentectomy, and lastly, NPlate. He forwarded this treatment plan to my hematoligist who I have been seeing during the course of my Prednisone treatment, and now the ball is rolling on leaving Prednisone behine (I HOPE!). He emphasized that Rituxan would be the next step, so I was hopeful to give it a try considering the effects would not be as harsh as Prednisone has been on me if I have any at all. However.... the doctor's office called me yesterday explaining that my co-pay (35%) would be around 7k for all 4 treatments. I definitely do not have this kind of money being unemployed, and my family's bills are already skyrocketting. They mentioned trying a co-payment assistance program, so I was wondering if anyone else has had any success with a program before? I will not be able to do the treatment without help, and the next step is a spleenectomy which I am not on board for.

Hi. Genentech used to have a program where they did help to pay the costs of Rituxan - I'm not sure if they still do or not.

You could try this:

www.rituxan.com/ra/patient/insurance-copay/index.html

I was in your position once, although I was working. My co-pay was really high and I could not justify spending that kind of money on a treatment. Anyway, I did get assistance from the SPOC and it helped a lot.

Here's another one:

www.pacificinfusion.com/forms/Rituxanauthform.pdf

I received assistance for Rituxin since my insurance wouldn't cover it. The doctors medical group did all the paperwork. It was a Genetech program for people of low income, you had to make under $50,000.-$74,000. for a single person something like that. Don't recall the exact figures.

The infusion costs were steep too but my insurance covered a lot of that. I think I paid $3500. deductible. I made payments. But the medical bills were piling up faster than I could pay them off, so the medical group ended up taking $3000. I owed as a tax write off. They have been so generous.

In my case the Rituxin didn't work well but it was worth a try. And it did work a little bit, enough to taper off the prednisone I was on. It kept me at around 25K plates for 6 mos with 2.5mg prednisone. (I had been stuck at 20mg pred.)

I didn't want a splenectomy-no. So I went to Promacta from there. I'm on GlaxoSmith Promacta Cares program and get it for free. Again the hemo's office did the paperwork. I chose Promacta over NPlate because Promacta is a pill. But with NPlate I would have to come in weekly for injections which I would have to pay for out of pocket.

Best of luck to you!~ p

They didn't ask for any income information when I used SPOC. None of it was based on income or I wouldn't have qualified. Maybe it's different now? I used them in 2003 I think.

thank you to those who responded and suggested things or programs for help! I applied for a co-payment assistance program back in October. I still have not received a reply...but that's ok because I have great news! At the end of November my platelets began rising on their own! I have not been on Prednisone since September and my last count rose from 125k to 225k within 2 weeks!! :laugh: I am so very excited and hopeful that my body is recovering and going into a remission with this ITp!

That is awesome news! So glad to hear it!