Do insurance companies cover the new treatment (interferon/ribavirin & incivek/victrelis)?
Allison Redcoat said
Apr 1, 2014
Thanks so much guys! It's been a relief to talk about it to anyone that really gets it! I'm clearly just beginning my research so everythings pretty new to me now. I'm concerned about the length of time it's taking my insurance company to get back to the doctors. We have only briefly discussed the treatment they are supposed to let me know how to administer it once they send some kind of application to whoever the heck it goes to. I still haven't heard anything and have several calls in to my doctor/nurse. Frustrating!
mallani said
Mar 27, 2014
Hi Melody,
In another post, you said you were Genotype 1. You should find out whether you're Geno 1a or 1b and you should also find out your Viral Load. Then we can discuss treatment options.
As Gracie said, triple treatment with Victrelis or Incivek is now out-dated in the USA. As you're near Chicago, you should have treatment choices. Keep us posted. These days, there's no need to be terrified. Cheers.
Gracie said
Mar 27, 2014
You should wait a few months and get re-tested. So many positive / negatives, you'd want to be 100% sure before you treated. Also the incevik/victrellis are the old treatments now. The new sovaldi with Riba and with or without inteferon is one of the new ones, and the SVR is very high and the treatment length as low as 12 weeks. Great time to treat if you have to.
Allison Redcoat said
Mar 27, 2014
My nurse told me 3 - 4 weeks and I would hear from my insurance company and then the meds would be mailed to me and I then have to make an appt so the nurse can show me how to administer it properly. It's been almost 6 weeks and I haven't heard anything from anyone! I have a call into the nurse but so far I still have no idea if I'm going to have to come out of pocket for this treatment. Also I wanted to mention that I was previously diagnosed about 3 years ago and then it suddenly went away! I went to a walk in clinic for a check up cause at the time I wasn't insured. That's when I got the diagnosis. Shortly thereafter my insurance kicked in and so I went to an OB/GYN and and explained that I needed a blood test. The dr who's name shall remain nameless in the event that this was all in my head but I felt a lot of judgement from said dr about the need for a blood test with a Hepatitis panel. If you don't ask they don't necessarily always check for that. ANYWAY - the results were negative. Confused me to death but since I didn't like the doc anyway I went for a 3rd opinion. At that point I met my current OB/GYN who I love to pieces and she never questioned a thing and again I got a negative result. Fearing that they would consider it a pre-existing condition if I mentioned the previous diagnosis I let it go and figured well it was a walk in clinic maybe they goofed the results. For the followings 2 years I went back annually for a broad spectrum STD blood test as I always do every year even before the diagnosis and for 2 years consecutively I got negative results. Last year sometime in June (I waited to get my annual test because I'd not had unprotected sex or any reason to believe things had changed) the results came back positive. I'm about to undergo treatment and I'm terrified! I'm long winded sorry, Hello btw and HELP PLEASE! =}
Thanks so much guys! It's been a relief to talk about it to anyone that really gets it! I'm clearly just beginning my research so everythings pretty new to me now. I'm concerned about the length of time it's taking my insurance company to get back to the doctors. We have only briefly discussed the treatment they are supposed to let me know how to administer it once they send some kind of application to whoever the heck it goes to. I still haven't heard anything and have several calls in to my doctor/nurse. Frustrating!
Hi Melody,
In another post, you said you were Genotype 1. You should find out whether you're Geno 1a or 1b and you should also find out your Viral Load. Then we can discuss treatment options.
As Gracie said, triple treatment with Victrelis or Incivek is now out-dated in the USA. As you're near Chicago, you should have treatment choices. Keep us posted. These days, there's no need to be terrified. Cheers.
My nurse told me 3 - 4 weeks and I would hear from my insurance company and then the meds would be mailed to me and I then have to make an appt so the nurse can show me how to administer it properly. It's been almost 6 weeks and I haven't heard anything from anyone! I have a call into the nurse but so far I still have no idea if I'm going to have to come out of pocket for this treatment. Also I wanted to mention that I was previously diagnosed about 3 years ago and then it suddenly went away! I went to a walk in clinic for a check up cause at the time I wasn't insured. That's when I got the diagnosis. Shortly thereafter my insurance kicked in and so I went to an OB/GYN and and explained that I needed a blood test. The dr who's name shall remain nameless in the event that this was all in my head but I felt a lot of judgement from said dr about the need for a blood test with a Hepatitis panel. If you don't ask they don't necessarily always check for that. ANYWAY - the results were negative. Confused me to death but since I didn't like the doc anyway I went for a 3rd opinion. At that point I met my current OB/GYN who I love to pieces and she never questioned a thing and again I got a negative result. Fearing that they would consider it a pre-existing condition if I mentioned the previous diagnosis I let it go and figured well it was a walk in clinic maybe they goofed the results. For the followings 2 years I went back annually for a broad spectrum STD blood test as I always do every year even before the diagnosis and for 2 years consecutively I got negative results. Last year sometime in June (I waited to get my annual test because I'd not had unprotected sex or any reason to believe things had changed) the results came back positive. I'm about to undergo treatment and I'm terrified! I'm long winded sorry, Hello btw and HELP PLEASE! =}
SINCERELY, TERRIFIED!