I had a patient that is in her 80’s call me up yesterday to ask about the prices on her medicines. She’s a really nice lady, so I took the time to really try to help her out. Mrs. Nicelady has Medicare Part D and she’s about to hit the Coverage Gap (a.k.a., the donut hole), so she wanted to know how much her medicines would cost while she didn’t have any coverage.
She has Parkinson’s Disease, so she’s on a lot of drugs for that, plus the commonplace heart meds that you tend to see older patients get. Unfortunately, a lot of her medicines are brand-name, and she has a very low income that barely covers her prescriptions when she has coverage. Shen needed to know how much her drugs will be so she can apply for financial assistance (food stamps).
I made up a small spreadsheet for her breaking down the prices by drug and the total for each month, which came to about $2400. I also pointed her in the way of some good assistance programs
I’m always surprised at how upbeat Mrs. Nicelady is, considering her condition. She can only afford the antipsychotics (which she uses to abate the symptoms of Parkinson’s) when she is in Part D’s catastrophic coverage, the part after the donut hole where copays are dramatically reduced. That explains why she has deteriorated so much since the beginning of the year.
This lady is the only patient I would ever work this hard for. I hope we find a cure for her disease (or at least her drug coverage) soon.
