08 April 2013

Reducing Drug Costs

I could have also called this post, "I won't do that again!" or "I wish I knew then what I know now!"

I have just received an estimate for drugs from Healthcare at Home for the drugs and I am blown away by the price difference.  Now, just to be clear, my prescription is not quite for enough drugs so I don't 'over order' but let's compare.  This was the previous drug breakdown from my first egg collection cycle:

DrugCost
Gonal F 900 pen x3 (£360 each)£1080
Gonal F 450 pen £180
Cetrotide x12 (£32 each)£384
Ovitrelle single dose£16
Total Cost£1660

This is what I was just (April 2013) quoted from Healthcare at Home:

DrugCost
Gonal F 900 pen x3 (£142.56 each)£427.68
Cetrotide x10 (£10.80 each)£108
Ovitrelle single dose£6.48
Delivery Fee£30
Credit Card Fee£11.44
Total Cost£583.60

Based on my previous cycle, this is two doses short of Gonal F and two doses short of Cetrotide- if my protocol lasts as long as my first.  But lets be clear.  This means my drugs would be almost 1/3 the cost of the drugs from the clinic!!  That is a HUGE difference.  Even if I have to order a couple extra doses, it will still be significantly cheaper, even with the delivery fee and credit card fee.  I mean, I will be getting a Gonal F 900 pen for LESS than the cost of the clinic 450 pen!!

So this means if my previous projected cost for cycle 2 with no changes was £4471, my current projected cost for cycle 2 with the drugs listed above is £3384.  Even if I have to purchase a Gonal F 450 pen and two more Cetrotide from my clinic (although why would I?) the projected cost will be £3628 for a total projected savings of £843.  And if I do need extra drugs and buy them from Healthcare at Home then I will save a bit more (around £40 more based on the above costs) even with delivery and credit card fees, so still worth it!

Part of me is annoyed I didn't know to check this out for my first cycle.  I'm also a tiny bit annoyed that my clinic never mentioned it, although obviously they make profit on selling the drugs, so I don't entirely fault them.  To be honest although I think it would be a nice thing to do, it's really not their job to mention it- I didn't specifically ask if there was any way to reduce my costs either.  However, I definitely know where I'll be getting my drugs from for cycle two.  I need to get on with ordering them now as I'm out of the country for most of May and when I get back for the start of June it will be time for round two.  But I'll keep updated here with my drug purchasing experience.  So far Healthcare at Home has a huge endorsement from me (if you can't tell by my repeating their name and posting the link :) )

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