Has anyone noticed the upcoming change in the cost of amitriptyline (and I think the rest of the tricyclics)? I called my insurance company about the upcoming changes for next year and discovered that the copay for 100mg 2x day, 180 tablets that used to be $20, will be $190 next year!!
I started looking around and went to healthwarehouse where I used to buy it because many times it was cheaper to buy thru them than my insurance. In 2013, I paid $18 and it now shows that it costs $337 on their site!!! Sites like goodrx still show that you can get it for the cheap price but many of the online pharmacies have already upped their prices, even Canada. I called the pharmacist at Walmart and he told me that it couldn't possibly go up that much so when I pick up my prescript (if they ever get any...apparently a shortage now), I'm going to show him the healthwarehouse.
My insurance company is requiring a preauthorization for this now! I've taken this CHEAP stuff since 2005.
I have emailed healthwarehouse and the generic makers to see what the heck this is about but haven't heard back and likely won't until next week, if at all.
And, no, this is not the brand, it is the generic. They don't even make Elavil (brand) anymore. All of the tricyclics have been moved to a Tier 4 drug at my insurance company (from Tier 1 or 2) which means more $$ to patients and, I assume, the insurance companies.
I guess its one more drug I'm crossing off my list. I never thought I would stop taking this...it has been my life saver.
Here is the link to the healthwarehouse.com for what I bought in 2013 for $18. This is a change coming in 2015, not necessarily right now thru insurance companies.
The same thing is happening in Canada. I was switched to Nortriptyline and it's cost is going up as well. My pharmacist said that it was being made by 4 different companies and now by just one. He was shaking his head saying how wrong it was that prices can be controlled like that.
I'm not stopping the med. I would pay every extra dollar I have for it which is sad but that pain is way worse! And I guess that is why drug companies can get away with this!
We are lucky in Canada that Drs and tests are free but meds are not. Without private insurance we pay full price. I own my own business so I don't have any insurance.
When/if I hear back from the generic manufacturers (I'll call if I don't get a response by midweek...it will be harder (but not impossible) to ignore me on the phone), I'll post what they say. This is highway robbery and these people should be ashamed. It didn't just increase in price to make it after all of these decades.
If they are going from 4 manufacturers to 1 that would explain the shortage on the market today and the increase. Maybe enough people will stop taking it that they will lower it again....eventually.
If this were the only drug I took, or even just one of a few, I would pay it. But it doesn't do enough by itself to warrant paying that along with everything else.
we should all write to our congress(wo)men and/or start a petition to ????.. but I guess that depends upon where the manufacturer is located.
Just for the "fun" of it, I looked up Noritriptylin and then the brand drug for it. Look at the price for it!!! It should pay for my house and send my kid to college for that price.
What I got from my conversation with my pharmacist is that the main company has somehow "forced" the others to stop producing it at a lower cost so that they could increase their price. I say "forced" probably means some kind of buy out or maybe a trade on another drug.
It is highway robbery. This is totally just my opinion but we both live in societies run by corporations, not governments.
All of the requests that I sent out to the manufacturers came back telling me that they didn't offer cost assistance for generic drugs. I emailed them back and said I was asking why the price went up so high. Now I don't expect to hear from them...
A couple months ago, the cost of Carbamezapine (generic for Tegretol) skyrocketed. At someone's suggestion on this site, I tried Walmart and it was only $10. I didn't have insurance and was paying cash. Month's ago I discovered that independent pharmacies (as opposed to CVS, etc.) charge WAY less when paying cash. My three meds went from a total of $260 to $45/month!!! Hope you can find a solution.
I used to use Walgreens. They doubled the cost of my amitriptilyn and I was told that if I was a member of their prescript club ($20/year) it would have been the price before they upped it. When I tried to join, I couldn't because I had insurance. So the cost with insurance was double the cost without.
I also had that issue with Carbamazapine XR. My new neuro wrote the prescript for the generic for Carbotrol which is Carbamazapine ER (same drug....name changed from XR to ER) and it was dirt cheap. I never understood it Go figure.
I was told by my insurance company that they can do a Tier reduction, which will make the co pay go from $90 to $45. This time I was told that if Walmart charges $20 for it, I will have to pay $20. Guess it depends upon what the pharmacy charges. THis is like trying to figure out which cell phone plan to get (at least in the days when they started getting popular). It makes NO sense.