[Diabetes-Talk] Questions regarding insulin, Medicare, and being in the doughnut hole

[Terri Stimmel]

Hello once more everyone,

I don’t know if any of you might have any thoughts or ideas. But I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.

My boyfriend has Medicare. I believe his drug coverage plan is with Signa. I feel I am remembering this correctly.

His diabetes specialist has him on Triciba. I apologize for any mis-spellings.

Anyway, this is his 2nd time trying it out. He was on it a couple of years ago, before he had Medicare.
Well, he has unfortunately ended up in the doughnut hole. Now in order for him to purchase the Triciba, it will cost him around $250. Of course, he can’t afford this.
However, he has tried other insulins in the past. Such as Lantis, Novolin, and 1 other I can’t think of the name of. The docotr, and my boyfriend feel that the Triciba, along with Metformin, and Humalog, work best for him.
She does also want to add Trulicity to the mix. But again this isn’t an option, because it’s going to cost about $200 a month.
My boyfriend is concerned that while he is in this doughnut hole, that the prices could possibly go up. There is no way he can afford either of these at the prices they currently are, anyway. The 1st month he got the Triciba, it was only $6.

So I was wondering, does anyone know if he might have any options?
Are there any companies out there that can possibly help him off-set this cost?
I know a lot of those coupon types of programs are not an option for him, due to him having Medicare.
so what might he be able to do, if anything? He really needs this insulin. If not, his quality of life does go down. But we don’t know what to do.
We live in the state of Missouri, if knowing this is helpful.

Any thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.

Thank you,

Terri
Sent from my iPhone