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What insurance is better for IV ABX treatment?

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Posted 10/29/2008 6:37 AM (GMT -8)
It is open enrollment time at my wife's employer.  I am on the verge on starting IV ABX treatment and wanted to hear people's input on which health insurance company is better.  I have not heard good things from Blue Cross Blue Shield as it pertains to IV ABX.  I do have to say that they have been pretty good with everything else for us.  The other option is United Healthcare (Choice Plus).  Has anyone had any experience with them and IV ABX?

Thanks!

Posted 10/29/2008 7:57 AM (GMT -8)
I have United Healthcare and they would only pay for 2 months IV even though they received a detailed letter from Dr. H about why I needed further treatment. They covered the PICC and visiting nurse every week but not the Rocephin. Why in the world would they pay for everything except the actual medication! We ended up paying it ourselves for 4 months.

Posted 10/29/2008 9:48 AM (GMT -8)

That is still better than the one month I heard about when it comes to BCBS.  I'm not even sure BCBS continues to pay for the PICC and the nurse.  When you say PICC, did they pay for the saline/hepron (sp?) and other supplies as well??

How is UH otherwise??   Any quirky loopholes that you encountered. 

Like I stated before, I have had tons of tests in the last 2 years trying to figure this out as well as many useless medication prescriptions and BCBS hasn't so much as blinked at it....yet.  That is why I ask.

Thanks so much for your input!

Posted 10/29/2008 10:33 AM (GMT -8)

Yeah, they paid for the supplies too. Just wouldn't pay for the Rocephin. I used saline to flush the line. So far they have paid for everything else. We did have BCBS but my husband changed jobs last year and the company he works for now has United.

I had a ton of tests done too by my new LLMD last fall and it was all paid for. I mean like over 5,000 worth. I just had the Igenex WB and co infection panel done again which we just submitted so it will interesting to see if they pay for that too. I think the bill for that was 920.00. The only thing so far they didn't pay for was the IV meds. I have had tons of useless prescriptions too. I think I could almost open my own pharmacy with all the unused drugs I have.

Posted 10/29/2008 10:56 AM (GMT -8)
Thanks again for this great info. BCBS did pay for a $500 Igenex bill....they paid $245 since it was out of network. My wife's employment says that BCBS will be charging 40% for out of network stuff in 2009 instead of 30%.

It is amazing the medications we probably all have after this. I know I could duplicate the park ranger's bag of medicine from the movie Under Our Skin. Next time there is a Lyme convention, participants should bring all there useless medication for one large picture. That would wake up health insurance companies.

Thanks again!
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