Holy-Moly -- Femara/Letrozole costs a fortune!

Thanks for the info -- I have been up and down on this all day... got nothing else accomplished.

Since I posted this morning, I called my oncologist's office -- and they said I probably qualify for FREE meds direct from the manufacturer, based on my (lack of) income -- then they emailed: "Sorry that free program no longer exists, but you can apply to RX Outreach for $30 for 90 days supply (Letrozole)..." and they emailed me a form.

Yay. right?

But I need to know my income for last year -- so I spent 2 hours searching (in vain) for my tax forms from 2011. I finally called my accountant and he reminded me that we didn't file because my income was below $8000. This means I now have nothing to prove that I made less than $8000 in 2011 -- so I need to recreate my 2011 income (it is all schedule C self-imployed). This way way way more work than I am up for right now. He said he can create the form (still not file with the IRS -- but it will work for this purpose). OH how I wish we had just completed the dummy form last March when all that paperwork was organized and laid out on my dining room table! Little value in hindsight.

Depressed, I came back here and went to the site Shiela provided -- it shows 90  days of Letrozole selling at Sams for $46.60 "with coupon" (goodrx.com) -- so I called Sams Club back and said -- "Hey -- what about this coupon -- and I think that the price in your computer must have been entered too high in error... how can a coupon take the price from $626 to $46.60?"

Sams told me that I would have had to bring the coupon in, and they won't do it in retrospect... but that they told me they would be willing to price-match Walgreens or some other local competitor (not an online company). So I called Walgreens in Santa Fe -- and they want $680 for 90 days of Letrozole!

Then (after seeing Susan's post above) I called Costco (in Albuquerque, because there isn't one in Santa Fe) and Costco said 44 tablets (the half-precsciption I paid $301.00 for at Sams because I couldn't afford the full 90 days) would only be $12.26 (or about $25 for a 90-day supply)!!! 

This is CRAZINESS.

So I called Sams Club in Santa Fe back, and they won't match Costco's price because I bought at Sams in Santa Fe, and Albuquerque is 45 minutes away -- a different city. Sams will "only match Santa Fe competitors." The pharmacy manager said I can call corporate Walmart to see what they might do for me, but the $626 for 90 days is the (discounted) price in her computer, and unless I can find a Santa Fe competitor with a lower price, I am out of luck getting a refund. 

Who has the strength to do all this?

I feel incredibly ripped off. How can there possibly be this HUGE a discrepancy between prices? There must be INCREDIBLE PROFIT being made off this wild price variation... and it is us (the sick and physically exhausted) who pay the outrageous price. 

Moderators -- I went to your mentioned resource earlier -- thanks... I spoke on phone to the folks at Partnership for Prescription Assistance much earlier today. They are sending me some snail mail info and gave me some phone numbers... MORE research. MORE hope... more potential, but more work and more energy/time.

It's not that I don't appreciate the leads, because I can't afford to not follow up and ease this financial burden, and I am thankful for whatever help I can get. But frankly, I am exhausted. I only have so much energy and all this shopping and phoning and arguing price is teriffically draining. 

What I need at this point is an advocate... perhaps a job I will create once I am well, to help others. Because this is just 'too much'. 

I must say that this is all WAY more (probably intentionally) confusing than it seems it should be -- especially for people in our situation. It seems to me that this is all just more insurance/medical industry GAME that plays unnecessary ping-pong with patients who are too ill and/or distracted to fight them properly. The hospitals/doctors/drug companies over-charge because the insurance companies expect to negotiate lower prices... so the original price is over-inflated.

"Let the buyer beware".

Like my hospital bill for $24,000 -- BCBS says "Nope, you only get $17,000." And the hospital says OK. So why did they bill $7000 extra to begin with? And what about patients without BSBC to lobby for them... why should they pay $7000 more ... or why should (potentially) their (different) insurance company be able to negotiate an even lower price than I paid? It is NUTS... and I am beginning to feel very very screwed.

And now the wildly varying prescription prices. 

This means that I will spend the rest of my day attempting to recreate 2011 finances so I can fill out the Rx Outreach form, so that at least in the future I won't be so grossly overcharged (if I qualify). Now I don'[t trust that Costco's price will be tomorrow what it was today, because the Sams pharmacy manger said she was going to call them and have them double check THEIR price! Sounds a lot like 'price-fixing' to me.

Maybe tomorrow I will have the strength to call every pharmacy in Santa Fe until I can find a reasonably priced Letrozole prescription and then try again to fight for a refund of the over-charge from Sams -- but I am 7 hours round trip from the Sams, and have to at some point cut my losses on this energy expenditure.

Man -- is this how this is supposed to work? This makes me ANGRY. And very very tired.