Paying For A Chronic Condition

Trying to afford medication for a chronic condition like Cystic Fibrosis can take a toll on one's wallet. Luckily, the past few years I have been told about some money saving programs that can help ease that burden.

So, the inspiration for this post came from a conversation that I had with a cashier at my local grocery store. She has a daughter with CF, and the only reason I know this is because we saw each other in the waiting room before a doctors appointment. Later that week, I was in her checkout lane and we got to talking and she said her daughter just got on her own insurance and is having difficulties as far as being able to pay co-pays, she is even becoming more lax with taking her daily medicines because she is finding a hard time paying for them every month. I shared with her the different financial assistance programs and co-pay cards that I am apart of and she replied that she had no idea that many of her daughters medications offered such assistance. I feel like this is more common than I thought, since I just learned about a lot of these programs within the last few years and I saw a post on Facebook a few days ago in a CF group asking for advice with help paying for co-pays and hospital visits.

Since I am pancreatic insufficient, I have taken different brands of enzymes throughout my lifetime. Well, the brand Creon, which I am currently on, is part of a program called CF Care Forward. If your copay is under $50, your prescription will be free. If it is over $55, your co-pay can be as little as $5. With the program, they send out nutritional supplements and multi-vitamins made especially for CF patients. I was so surprised when my first order of supplements came in and they sent me a WHOLE CASE of Ensure!

I learned about this program from my CF clinics Nutrtionist, who offered me a welcome packet that came with a card that I had to activate. If you are unable to get a welcome packet, I believe that you can still register and request a card from CF Care Forward.

I know that a lot of fellow CF'ers also take the inhaled drug Pulmozyme. I have taken this medication for as long as I can remember but just learned that they offered co-pay assistance 2 years ago when I was calling in my prescription and the pharmacist asked me if I knew that Pulmozyme offered a co-pay card. Thank God for that random pharmacist because she has saved me a lot of money over the past 2 years. To learn more and enroll in the program please visit Genentech Access Solutions.

Anti-biotics were a different story for me. For the longest time I was on a generic of TOBI, tobramycin, since my insurance required me to take the generic of a medication if one were available. Since I was on the generic, there was no co-pay assistance program I could take part in. However; I recently switched to Cayston because I was growing resistant to tobramycin. I could not tell a difference in how I felt on my 'off' months compared to my 'on' months. We decided to give Cayston a try and so far I am loving it. I would assume that anyone taking Cayston already knows about the assistance program since you have to work with them to obtain the nebulizer and nebulizer cups that can only be used with the medication. For those interested here is the link: Cayston Access Program. For those on the medication, be sure to order yourself a Cayston Carrying Case for the nebulizer, it's free and keeps the nebulizer safe, since it costs a lot of $$$ to replace. It also makes treatments on the go so much easier!

For those who do take TOBI, or the TOBI podhaler, here is the assistance program offered by the manufacturer: TOBI PodCare+.

Lastly, Orkambi. Even though I was only on the prescribed drug for less than a month before it was determined that it was not helping me at all, I felt like the people over at Vertex really want to help their patients pay for the medication, since a years worth can be upwards of $200,000 without insurance. Vertex is also the manufacturer of the drug Kalydeco. I know that there is a bit more paperwork involved in getting into Vertex's financial assistance program and your doctor will have to fill out a few forms as well and send them off. For more information visit Vertex Guidance and Patient Support.

These are just my experiences and I understand that these programs work on a case by case basis and an individual's insurance is also considered when being considered for program eligibility. I hope that these links can help someone and save them some money as well.

If you are part of a financial assistance/co-pay card program that I did not include, please share in the comments.