The Associated Press: #Wisconsin couple sues #Walgreens and #OptumRx, saying son died after $500 price rise for #asthma #meds
https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-asthma-medicine-lawsuit-walgreens-optum-8b4130ab404e513fbd68c9e02b51976b
#OptumRx
A 22-year-old Wisconsin man died of a severe asthma attack because he couldn't afford the price of his inhaler, which was no longer covered by his insurance.
This young man was murdered by the for-profit healthcare system in the United States.
#OptumRx #UnitedHealthcare #Greed #USpolitics #LuigiMangione #CEO
New problem from OptumRx (UHC): If dose of medication is changing, acquiring the new dose is considered a refill. I must use at least 80% of the prior dose before I can request the new one.
This medication (Mounjaro) is 4 single use autoinjection pens. This policy means I must use all 4 pens before I can request the new dose.
Orders can take over a week for this medication. I have to run out before I can request more, and risk being late on the next dose.
Looks like OptumRx has told my pharmacy they don't want to cover the one triptan I found that they are supposed to cover.
OptumRx is owned by United Healthcare.
I'm so sick of this.
I found one generic triptan covered, in the form of a nasal spray: zolmitriptan. I'm a little concerned about the potential side effects, but I haven't had any issues with sumatriptan, so maybe it'll be fine.
This is such a stupid problem to be having.
#USHealthcare #OptumRx #UHC #UnitedHealthCare #UnitedHealth #Migraine
Forgot one drug in my drug coverage research: sumatriptan. If you suffer migraines, either episodic or chronic, you know what this is.
Coverage denied.
So researching...I can't find any triptans covered.
I guess fuck people with migraines? Just take high strength pain killers?
No wonder we have an opioid crisis.
Need to do more research. I refuse to fall back to rescue medications.
#USHealthcare #OptumRx #UHC #UnitedHealthCare #UnitedHealth #Migraine
Health insurance companies are notorious for exploiting prior authorization schemes to avoid paying for care and have denied claims at alarming rates in recent years.
However, corporate consolidation of industry “middlemen” that experts say are partially to blame for the prescription drug affordability crisis has received less scrutiny from the general public,
despite efforts by lawmakers and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to shine light on the notoriously opaque and confusing corporate bureaucracy that determines the cost of medicine.
We often hear about Big Pharma selling drugs at high prices
and insurance companies dragging their feet when it comes time to pay the bill,
but the prices patients pay out of pocket for pharmaceuticals is largely shaped by the connective tissue between insurers and drug manufacturers: #pharmacy #benefit #managers, or PBMs.
PBMs have been around for decades, but the largest PBMs have merged with major insurance companies to form conglomerates,
including UnitedHealth Group’s #OptumRx.
In theory, PBMs negotiate discounts and rebates paid by drug makers that are passed onto insurance companies and their patients,
but the lack of transparency in that process has long frustrated lawmakers and regulators attempting to contain the skyrocketing cost of medicine.
The PBMs say their secret negotiations with drug companies make prescriptions more affordable for consumers,
but this system has not shown to protect patients from sticker shock at the pharmacy counter.
Nearly 30 percent of Americans say they haven’t taken prescribed medication due to cost,
and an estimated 1.1 million Medicare patients alone could die over the next decade because they cannot afford the drugs prescribed by their doctors,
according to the American Hospital Association.
The FTC reports that in 2023, the U.S. spent more than $722 billion on prescription drugs,
đź’Ąnearly as much as the rest of the world combined.
Clearly the system is not working for patients or public health,
and policy makers in both parties have increasingly focused on the PBMs
and their recent mergers with major insurance companies.
According to a two-year FTC investigation on health care conglomerates released in July,
PBMs are “powerful middlemen inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.”
“We’ve heard accounts of how the business practices of PBMs may deprive patients of access to the most affordable medicines
and how doctors find themselves having to subordinate their independent medical judgment to PBMs’ decision-making at the expense of patient health,”
FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement at the time.
https://truthout.org/articles/its-not-just-denied-claims-insurance-firms-are-hiring-middlemen-to-deny-meds/
A reminder that OptumRx is a UnitedHealthCare company and is very good at preventing patients from getting medication prescribed by their physicians. Also very good at preventing patients from getting their covered meds at local pharmacies.
1/2
Preface: today, I was told that WITH insurance, 7 doses (titrating on) of my new anti-depressant, #Trintellix , would cost me $60. For 7 god-damned pills.
⊹₊ ˚‧︵‿₊ŕ¨ŕ§â‚Šâ€żď¸µâ€§ Ëš ₊⊹
You know how certain stores have “store brands” since e.g. _Threshold_ sounds like a way cooler brand than “Target-brand cheap fitted bedsheets”?
Well hey, turns out, #UnitedHealthcare did that too! Fooled me; I am [an unhappy] United Health Care customer, and I thought that Optum was a separate company.
BURN IT ALL DOWN.
:DumpsterFire: :DumpsterFire: :DumpsterFire:
This guy gets it:
(Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCCgmmQCQL2/ )
UnitedHealthCare is probably the most hated health insurer in the USA, so the list of people who would like its CEO to die is very long.
#Congress finds #pharmacies give patient records to #lawenforcement without warrants
Sen. #RonWyden urged the Biden administration to revise #HIPAA rules to better guard #Americans’ pharmaceutical records from #warrantless law enforcement requests.
Researchers looked at #CVS; #Walgreens; #Cigna; #OptumRx; #Walmart; #Kroger; #RiteAid; and #Amazon #Pharmacy; None of the eight require a warrant prior to sharing #patientrecords.
https://therecord.media/congressional-report-pharmacies-give-patient-records-law-enforcement-no-warrants #privacy #surveillance
Earlier today, I wasted a good 30 minutes on the phone with the outfit that delivers my drugs, #OptumRx.
Apparently, they require customers to give their approval when they get new prescriptions. I've never heard of this.
Now, the thing that gets me is that they knew it was a new prescription on December 5th. Why did they wait until today to cancel my bloody order?
And why do they need my approval? Is there a scam where doctors prescribe unnecessary medicines??
#medicine #USHealthcare #healthcare #USHealthcareInsurance #HealthcareInsurance #prescription
Star Tribune: UnitedHealth's Optum gets FDA warning letter over 'serious deficiencies' at infusion facility Star Tribune: UnitedHealth's Optum gets FDA warning letter over 'serious deficiencies' at infusion facility.
https://www.startribune.com/unitedhealths-optum-receives-fda-warning-letter-over-serious-deficiencies-at-infusion-facility/600244514/
#OptumRX
#UnitedHealthCare #UHC
Not the least bit happy with OptumRX so far.
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