Returning from vacation on April 27th, I felt ready to tackle whatever was thrown my way. I was refreshed, recharged mentally, and I felt so much more in control. Pretty short lived once I started to get everything organized.
Medications
My clinic had provided me with all the medications required (OMG there is a lot!) and a list of all the pharmacies they recommend. According to their finance department and a quick call (to the wrong department... see update below why I say this), my meds would be included in my $25,000 lifetime fertility limit, which meant it would take up a lot of the that limit. This is because insurance is billed insanely high dollar values compared to paying out of pocket. And that the insurance money would be better spent on the more expensive things like retrieval procedures and transfers (FET).
The list of medications I was prescribed:
I started calling around to all the pharmacies to get a price comparison (see my link in main page to fertility medication discounts). Definitely cried a little when I added the total cost... it was going to be $5600 for everything. Yep you heard me right, way to go USA. Anyway, I had to bite the bullet, too late now, and I finally decided on where to get my prescription sent.
I went to pick up half of the medications, since I am paying out of pocket, they suggested not purchasing all of it at once and see how the cycle is going half way so I don't over order.
Even with my discount through RX, my bill came to $2089.11. Mind blowing.
They say you can't put a price on having a baby..... well 'they' clearly haven't been through IVF as a #single person.
But nonetheless, I am ready to go.
Update - ordering second half of meds (mid cycle)
On day 4 of my injections, I needed to get the rest of my meds, now I knew how I was responding. Luckily for me, I had a call from my insurance nurse, and I was telling her how shocked I was with the prices of the meds.
Get this..... she asked me why I was buying them out of pocket!! I told her that was what I was advised to do so I didn't waste any of my $25,000 fertility lifetime limit on the overbilling of medications. She told me that ALL MY IVF MEDS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THAT LIMIT!! Dammit, I am so annoyed I spent all that money for no good reason.
So I made a quick phone call to my clinic, cancelled the prescription at the pharmacy and had them call through the rest of my meds to my insurance pharmacy! The second half of the meds only ended up costing me $450 which was all made up of the deductible.
So my advise to you is... don't trust anyone to tell you the truth. Do as much investigation & research as possible when speaking to your insurance companies. That one person told me it would come off my fertility limit made me spend an unnecessary $2100. As if this whole process isn't frustrating enough. I can hand on heart say, that the financial burden and insurance companies cause so much stress, that I can't help but think that it is going to effect my eggs. The one thing all the books and doctors say is to reduce #stress as much as possible during this process.
To insurance companies all over the US.... here is a big F%#K YOU for making things so much harder than they should be.
