It Costs $83,000/Month to Keep Me Alive (Srs)

[Radsguy]

it doesn't really cost $90,000... I mean it does but lets be cereal for a moment, medical costs are JACKED WAYYYYY UP so hospitals/doctors can make a huge profit.

I got a leg brace once for a knee injury and it supposedly cost $2000... it was probably made for $3

Hospitals, sure. Doctors, nope. The doctor gets paid the fee for the clinic visit (like 50-100 bucks) and the rest goes to the hospital. The hospital probably make some profit and the rest of the money goes to the company that makes it and has a patent on it for the next 10 years until it can go generic.

[Zyonasan]

why the heck does it cost 900,000 a year, that is extortionate.

I mix that stuff on a daily basis in the hospital I work at. It also costs us an arm and a leg to purchase it too.

Novo-7
Factors VII-IX
Advate

etc, etc, all they are, are tiny little vials that need to be mixed with a unnecessary proprietary transfer adaptors. When administered, they give the patient a "clotting factor" so if they get a cut or a scrape they don't bleed to death but they run us (the Inpatient Pharmacy Department) a little under 6million per year to keep in stock....and thats for ONE drug, it doesn't account for the rest of our formulary.

The odd thing is, its not like its a brand new drug. Factors have been around in some form or another for a good 20 years. You would have expected the price to go down somewhat.

[Ryan1021]

It's called a recombinant treatment.

Sone hemophiliacs only take it once per month, and some take more medicine than I do daily.

I'm guessing your are severe hemophiliac?

I knew a guy who was a mild and he was lucky and didn't have to take anything for it. I think he only needed treatment for major things like surgery or severe trauma, basically only when a non-hemophiliac would have to go the hospital. That's what he said at least.

[anonymous]

Before anyone asks, I have a severe form of a blood disorder but it has little impact on my health besides requiring expensive shots every other day. Today I saw the bill for a month's supply... and holy fuark, it costs over $900,000 per year just to keep me alive. Frankly I need to do something amazing for this not to go to waste.

1 - become billionaire
2 - find cure for ur disease
3 - ????
4 - profit

[zagaboi]

This. OP you aware that it's part of your fault that America is in debt?

An example of someone just posting withoutneven reading or knowing the facts. OP has his own insurance and ays for it. He is not on gov't assistance you *******. And screw you for blaming sick people that America is on debts. It's all on msmanagement and bad decisions from the top. A partof that is the fact that there are a lot of people who depend on wellfare and not get any type of work. OP said he worked and paid for his insurance. READ.

Going back to the issue, I see this kind of bill all the time working in a hospital. I wouldn't even go to small doses of chemo drugs which costs tens of thousands of dollars for a small tiny bag. A part of the big bill is becuase of PF, Hospital costs (which som jack up the prices), and some fhaakcd up govt regulations. It is what it is, that is why it is very important to have insurance and to know the coverage.

OP, I hope you get well man. Just continue whatever therapy the doc is telling you. do not miss appointments and miss dosing of your drugs, for take home meds. Your condition could exacerbte any time if mismanaged. Don't mind the bill, if you start paying more out of pocket, look for ways or ask someone on how to to lower it, there is always a loophole. I wish you good health bro for the coming years and years, and stay strong! Reps for you

[NofcksgivenBrah]

what if they inject some bcaa with blood?

[Razgreeze]

medical companies are evil, its all bout the money and not trying to save lives like they're suppose to do.

Op you're going to make it, your problems will eventually subside into nothing

Genetic disorders do not go away.

[White-Belt]

I mix that stuff on a daily basis in the hospital I work at. It also costs us an arm and a leg to purchase it too.

Novo-7
Factors VII-IX
Advate

etc, etc, all they are, are tiny little vials that need to be mixed with a unnecessary proprietary transfer adaptors. When administered, they give the patient a "clotting factor" so if they get a cut or a scrape they don't bleed to death but they run us (the Inpatient Pharmacy Department) a little under 6million per year to keep in stock....and thats for ONE drug, it doesn't account for the rest of our formulary.

The odd thing is, its not like its a brand new drug. Factors have been around in some form or another for a good 20 years. You would have expected the price to go down somewhat.

It really doesn't make sense to me. I wonder what a comparable dose over here would cost.

Genetic disorders do not go away.

Not right now, but one day they will

[Kgetfit89]

In the end the company makes much less. Just like hospitals and doctors. They can charge x. The insurance company will only allow them to charge y. And you usually with insurance will only pay 15% of that already low new number. For instance I had surgery for my kidney. Costs were like 22k etc. The insurance dropped it down to about 6 then I only payed my part of that. And to Canada bros just lol. Don't say **** is free when it comes from your taxes. If we don't have much supply of a rare drug you must have none.

[michaelproject]

I mix that stuff on a daily basis in the hospital I work at. It also costs us an arm and a leg to purchase it too.

Novo-7
Factors VII-IX
Advate

etc, etc, all they are, are tiny little vials that need to be mixed with a unnecessary proprietary transfer adaptors. When administered, they give the patient a "clotting factor" so if they get a cut or a scrape they don't bleed to death but they run us (the Inpatient Pharmacy Department) a little under 6million per year to keep in stock....and thats for ONE drug, it doesn't account for the rest of our formulary.

The odd thing is, its not like its a brand new drug. Factors have been around in some form or another for a good 20 years. You would have expected the price to go down somewhat.

Exactly right. How many doses do you get for $6 million?

[BornToConquer]

In Canada, it'd cost a few thousand a year to keep you alive

But you live in America, where hospitals charge you $50 for an Advil

mirin location. I've visited San Marino once before

[Zyonasan]

it doesn't really cost $90,000... I mean it does but lets be cereal for a moment, medical costs are JACKED WAYYYYY UP so hospitals/doctors can make a huge profit.

The funny thing is, we actually lose money on recombinant factors. When I was trained in the IV administration billing, when it came to that drug alone, once all the 3rd parties were paid off and the insurances went went through, we lost about $12 per dose of that drug. We probably wouldn't carry it otherwise, but if your hospital is government funded (like ours) AND if you're a Trauma Center, (where your facility is "the last line of defense" for someone dying from uncommon/rare disorders/diseases/conditions) you're mandated by the FDA to carry this drug even though its detrimental to the hospital, at least from the business side of things. Before the Affordable Care Act passed (obama care) we made a profit off of it but was wasn't really that much (<$100 per administration)

so yeah....there's probably a conspiracy, you've just got to follow the money trail, but the money is certainly not going into the pockets of hospitals and doctors...its just "going" somewhere else.

*obligatory "Thanks Obama"*

[Zyonasan]

But you live in America, where hospitals charge you $50 for an Advil

close, its more like $28 for a single 325mg Tylenol tablet.....

yeah its ridiculous.

[MaximumCapacity]

No worries op my grandma actually has to take medicine that cost half that but the government pays for it

[feelymcfeel]

Hemophilia but I was born with it so this is all nothing new. Haven't seen the bill for this before today though.

Porphyric haemophilia?

[zagaboi]

I mix that stuff on a daily basis in the hospital I work at. It also costs us an arm and a leg to purchase it too.

Novo-7
Factors VII-IX
Advate

etc, etc, all they are, are tiny little vials that need to be mixed with a unnecessary proprietary transfer adaptors. When administered, they give the patient a "clotting factor" so if they get a cut or a scrape they don't bleed to death but they run us (the Inpatient Pharmacy Department) a little under 6million per year to keep in stock....and thats for ONE drug, it doesn't account for the rest of our formulary.

The odd thing is, its not like its a brand new drug. Factors have been around in some form or another for a good 20 years. You would have expected the price to go down somewhat.

Can totally relate bro.. I just shake my head while mixing patient meds after seeing how much they charge for a single dose. And they are given 4x a day for 7 days, imagine how much kaching it is.

[Zyonasan]

Exactly right. How many doses do you get for $6 million?

we get a ****-ton of them, but we have to keep a certain amount in stock based on our cities population size and history of administration and all that jazz.

At least for the Novo-7 (which is usually for newborns diagnosed with the condition) we usually have 1,000 vials in stock (but one dose may take more than one vial.) and we've had babies that have needed doses as often as every 3 hours around the clock.

[BornToConquer]

Good thing you guys have wellfare.

Thanks Obama

[Brdprey]

hfs........83k? i dont know what to say with out it coming out wrong.

[vsportsguy]

A million dollars a year. Wow man, that's a lot of money.

[brojaysimpson7]

Lol this is everything that is wrong with the medical industry, and insurance companies complete failure to audit hospitals and what they are charging for chit.

This 100% brah.

[Zyonasan]

Lol this is everything that is wrong with the medical industry, and insurance companies complete failure to audit hospitals and what they are charging for chit.

once again. Most hospitals are government funded. we don't get a cent from that (at least on the pharmacy side of things) and the little profit made at a hospital are just enough to keep the lights on......and to give the CEO an annual $60k bonus with a 1.2million/year salary, but that money doesn't come from patients and patrons being admitted and discharged from the hospital. Its something a little more complicated involving grants from the government for complying with XYZ protocols and shit of that nature.

the drug companies don't care about hospitals and whether or not we make a profit, we're just one of many sprinkled throughout the country.

[LimitBreak]

I think he is getting recombinant proteins, so it isn't going to be cheap to make. But insulin is recombinant also, and it is more reasonably priced.

Recombinant simply means that a gene from one organism, in this case human (probably) is put into another organism (could be bacteria, but probably some mammal cell line) which then produces that protein and then harvested.

Adding the genes is the easy part, the harvesting can be the hard part, because the protein has to be cleaned, and needs to be pure but there are methods to do that also, and depending on the protein, needs to fold correctly.

Basically there is a huge markup on this product - I'm 100% sure of that.

Just because something is recombinant doesn't automatically means it should be expensive.

The fact is that if only 1 company produces it then they can charge what the like.

Personally I find a grey ethical area.

You can only hope that their patent expire and they don't get an extension after 20 years of ridiculous profits !

But then again if that pharmaceutical company didn't invent the research, etc.. the drug won't be there and people might not be alive, so in a sense they are saving lives and have earned it!

[RushEm]

but at what cost?

[chaoserver]

Kinda messed up that there is a company/people out there who must fist pump knowing you are sick cuz it accounts for about a million a year in their pockets.

[CollegeStudent8]

ITT: people who don't understand medical billing

Most of the costs come from labor, costs of education, and r&d.

The drug is probably cheap to produce.

Why is it so expensive?

BRB decades of research into the drug
BRB Clinical trials.
BRB student loans of the MD/PhDs who conducted research
BRB loans for OP's doctor

Average Doctor probably has 200k usd from medical school and at least 50k from undergrad.

You cannot do much to cut costs of research of the time it takes to develop a new drug, but you can cut the cost of medical school, all the BS hospital administration jobs that get paid 80k a year to do paperwork, and the higher up staff that gets paid more than doctors for doing nothing productive. Cut the cost of medical school, and cut the salaries of nurses and doctors - now, people that wanted these jobs and who really cared about people could have them, because prior to this, they were put off by the loans and the inflated competition that comes with med school applications, avoiding an influx of doctors (thus, avoiding lower salaries).

[lalaland86]

You need to get on an insurance plan brother. With the new PPACA rules and regulations your max out of pocket for the year is something like $6,500.

[anonymous]

I mix that stuff on a daily basis in the hospital I work at. It also costs us an arm and a leg to purchase it too.

Novo-7
Factors VII-IX
Advate

etc, etc, all they are, are tiny little vials that need to be mixed with a unnecessary proprietary transfer adaptors. When administered, they give the patient a "clotting factor" so if they get a cut or a scrape they don't bleed to death but they run us (the Inpatient Pharmacy Department) a little under 6million per year to keep in stock....and thats for ONE drug, it doesn't account for the rest of our formulary.

The odd thing is, its not like its a brand new drug. Factors have been around in some form or another for a good 20 years. You would have expected the price to go down somewhat.

I assume since it's such a niche product and the market supports that price , there's no incentive to switch to cheaper production

Like igf1, only one company makes it so it's insanely expensive while bovine igf1 costs cents per dose

OP you can't really put a dollar value on life, glad you get these meds covered

[FChumChum]

Hemophilia A or B?

[nchesher]

I've been a moderate Hemophiliac my entire life and can relate to OP. The cost is insane for clotting factor but thankfully there's programs out there to cover anyone who needs it. I haven't paid a dime for my Factor VIII for years. I thankfully only need to use it 2 or 3 times a year for random tweaks and injuries.