Pages

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Compound Pharmacies and Insurance coverage...

Luckily our girls are rarely sick. The last time we needed to get drugs was when New Seasons still had their Pharmacy. Well, the one year lucky streak just ran out as Mia Rosie has an ear infection and needs antibiotics. This time I wanted to try out a "new" pharmacy one from the "compounding list". In any case, I went to the Pharmacy explained what we needed (Galactosemia = no milk sugar, etc.) which was great. The pharmacist was very nice but he did not have the powder to compound the drug. He did however have the "stuff" to make the liquid. I then showed him my insurance card "Oh, no we do not take that insurance. We only take about three (!!!) different plans" he told me. I asked why not and he told me that the insurance companies just do not adequately reimburse for compounded drugs. He thought that most compounding pharmacies do not even take insurance. WOW!!! - Isn't that awful?! Yes, you can pay for it and make a claim to the insurance company in hopes that you won't need to fight it....


In our case it was not a problem. The pharmacist read through the entire product told me the brand and that it was fine. We then proceeded to our regular small pharmacy and everything was a-OK. The point of this however is that I find it awful that insurance companies refuse to pay a fair price for compounded drugs.