Hi ty-people on medicare with a part d plan.
open enrollment starts today & i wanted to relate what happened to me last year.
Part D allows the providers to switch the drug fomulary they provide in each plan yearly. When i was using betaseron i was diligent about checking if betaseron was still covered in my plan every november . since ty is an iv drug and covered in medicare part b, instead of part d, i got lazy and didn't check it last year.
with the rise in pml, i grew concerned i might have to switch to one of the self injectibles again. THEN I CHECKED TO SEE IF THEY WERE STILL IN MY DRUG FORMULARY AS THEY HAD BEEN FOR THE PREVIOUS 5 YEARS.
AND IT WASN'T. they had changed the drug formulary so all people needing an expensive specialty med had to be in a certain plan to get their meds. and it wasn't in my plan. i had top wait until next year to get into a plan with MS drugs.
it has made me jittery all year, knowing i could not switch if i wanted to/or needed to.
today is the first day i can switch to a different plan for next year & i am doing it today. not that i want to switch from ty, but i want to know that i can if i need to.
So I am pleading with people on medicare using medicare part d, to check their drug formulary that it still includes the other MS drugs if for some reason you need to switch next year.
open enrollment starts today & i wanted to relate what happened to me last year.
Part D allows the providers to switch the drug fomulary they provide in each plan yearly. When i was using betaseron i was diligent about checking if betaseron was still covered in my plan every november . since ty is an iv drug and covered in medicare part b, instead of part d, i got lazy and didn't check it last year.
with the rise in pml, i grew concerned i might have to switch to one of the self injectibles again. THEN I CHECKED TO SEE IF THEY WERE STILL IN MY DRUG FORMULARY AS THEY HAD BEEN FOR THE PREVIOUS 5 YEARS.
AND IT WASN'T. they had changed the drug formulary so all people needing an expensive specialty med had to be in a certain plan to get their meds. and it wasn't in my plan. i had top wait until next year to get into a plan with MS drugs.
it has made me jittery all year, knowing i could not switch if i wanted to/or needed to.
today is the first day i can switch to a different plan for next year & i am doing it today. not that i want to switch from ty, but i want to know that i can if i need to.
So I am pleading with people on medicare using medicare part d, to check their drug formulary that it still includes the other MS drugs if for some reason you need to switch next year.
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