december_brigette Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 hi all, this is more of a "learn from my story" post. im currently tapering off seroquel. my pdoc started me on abilify to help. well, it was time for me to get my seroquel for a month and my prescription insurance plan (medicare part d) would not approve it until march 12. so im on the phone with everyone. i have no idea how i handled this other than im swinging swing. the rx insurance didnt like me taking 2 anti-psychotics at once. "its just too much." i would love to not be on any meds....much less this hell of getting off seroquel. so, in the end, everything got approved. i just think its funny that the rx plan thought i was taking too much. so if this happens to you in the future you can say "my little friend db went thru the same thing." db Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celestia Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 I think it's appalling that they have any say at all in what you take and how much you take. I've had similar problems with Medicare D. It's frustrating. I'm glad it got resolved and you didn't suffer w/d or anything else really painful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ophelia Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 that must have been really frustrating. i'm glad that everything got resolved, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Usually that kind of prior authorization should be the prescriber's responsibility - you shouldn't be on hold. Call the prescriber's office next time... (apologies if you did and they told you to do it...) But it's a good point to have out there for everyone - if you're transitioning between two AAPs (or two antidepressants, especially if one of them is branded), it might be a really good idea to ask, "Hey, is there going to be, like, paperwork for this?" It's a toss-up between "let the clinician do his/her job and work with the patient" and "discourage possibly needless polypharmacy that gets pushed by pharma and isn't borne out by the literature." At $600 month for doses of the AAPs, you can see how the pharmacy benefit managers get twitchy about this. Most of the plans don't make a "1-3 month exception" for cross-transitioning off one drug and on to another, which is kind of stupid, because that's what most psych types seem to do. Good job sticking to your guns, db! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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