My husband's rheumatologist recommended taking an anti-malarial drug to stop his body from attacking his heart, but his insurance company turned it down cold because it's a new, experimental, off-label use. The cost of this medication is $14,000. Anyone else deal with this problem? Or do you have any input on the drug? Thanks.
I'm not sure which drug you're speaking of, but I can tell you that I have taken both Plaquenil and Aralen phosphate, both of which are used for Lupus, and was very happy with results. Unfortunately, I was allergic to both (Plaquenil first, which is why we tried Aralen, which I also proved allergic to), but if not, I would have stayed on them much longer, because they really helped decrease my symptoms. The only significant risk I was aware of was the possibility of eye problems, but even the slim chance of those occuring would not prevent me from using these drugs. As advised, I had opthalmologist baseline my eyes, and nothing bad happened (of course, I used these drugs for very short time). It's terrible that your insurance company would dispute your rheumatologist's better judgement. It may be worth the expense, and maybe your doc can advise if there are any programs that could help with expense. Hope it works out for your husband.
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Posted by TDenis
My husband's rheumatologist recommended taking an anti-malarial drug to stop his body from attacking his heart, but his insurance company turned it down cold because it's a new, experimental, off-label use. The cost of this medication is $14,000. Anyone else deal with this problem? Or do you have any input on the drug? Thanks.