The Ward

Have questions about health care, insurance, the nuts and bolts about how this stuff works? Want to share experiences and information? Jump in! Just avoid diagnosing.

 

Medicine is ridiculously expensive. GoodRX is a fairly extensive resource that covers all but the most expensive prescriptions.

I am currently on Jardience, Eliquis, and starting tomorrow -deep breath here- Ozempic. A good doctor will help you find ways to get access to the meds you need. This is especially true if the clinical indications are for more than vanity purposes.

 

The thing I hate is having a doctor for my son who really does nothing but “manage his meds.”

It’s not the concept itself that bothers me. It’s that she often makes these “medication management” decisions in a vacuum based on minimal feedback and observation.

 

Gosh, I'm sorry to hear that! Does the practice have a nurse practitioner who works with his doctor?

Mental health and peds are two areas that can be minefields when maintenance meds are part of the treatment plan.

 

You wish. She also does it in consultation with your insurance company's formulary, which tells the Dr. which Rx the InsCo prefers to pay for. You see, sometimes the InsCo prefers a given prescription over another similar drug because they get a kickback from one manufacturer while another does not pay them. Sometimes it's that the InsCo owns a bunch of stock in a given drug company and channeling every dollar possible to that company makes good business sense - to them. It does not mean that drug is actually the best choice for the patient.

The doc I worked for got monthly reports from Blue Cross detailing how many of what drug he prescribed in a given month, including what percentage were generic, which were InsCo preferred brands, which were more expensive non-preferred drugs. A doctor ignores such printouts at peril of finding himself off the list of physicians that insurance company covers. In Alabama, if you were not an authorized Blue Cross physician, you might as well pack up and find another state, you'll starve.

 

Anyone got any tips for plantar fasciitis?

 

Stay off your feet when possible.
Inspect footwear ... worn-out sneakers, shoes, slides/sandals don't help the cause.

Those are the at-home tips. Obviously, a foot specialist can further advise on possibilities such as orthotics.

 

Nope. We have an LCSW we work with independently, but he obviously can’t prescribe medication. So the psychiatrist does that, even though she doesn’t ever speak to the LCSW and meets with my son for a half-hour every three months.

As I’m sure you can imagine, finding a medication that actually worked for him was a painstakingly long process filled with trial and error. Sometimes she’ll recommend something having completely forgotten that we’ve already tried it to no avail.

And her answer to everything is more pills. This drug is working but keeping him up all night? How about he takes one of these other pills to come down?

Luckily, we found a med that works and has very few side effects, and he’s been on it for two-plus years. Now she’s laying the groundwork for putting him on a second med when he goes back to school.

 

I slept in this boot-like contraction for a month or so when I had it. It supposedly stretched the muscles while I slept. It worked, but made for awkward sleep until I got used to it.

 

I was plagued by plantar fasciitis years ago when I increased my running miles too quickly. Nowadays, it flares up just to remind me that I’m becoming a geezer.

I have narrow feet with high arches. The remedy for me was insoles with arch support. I put more expensive ($50-60) New Balance Pain Relief CFX insoles in shoes I use for running. Other shoes get less expensive ($15-20) high-arch insoles.

Supporting arches might take some of the stress off the connective tissue that runs the length of the foot. Prescription orthotics might also help but I’m way too cheap for those.

 

My doc prescribed Skyrizzi a few months ago. My initial co-pay was going to more than $7,000. Then it got lowered to $1,200, and finally to $520 with the promise that I could get reimbursed in full.

I finally talked to a guy at Skyrizzi who worked some magic or something because he got my co-pay down to $5. I have no idea how he managed to do that, but I didn’t ask questions.

And after all that, Skyrizzi still hasn’t helped with what it was supposed to.

 

Check out SingleCare, too. Beats GoodRx on the one prescription I use it for.

https://www.singlecare.com/