Patients and Physicians Speak Out

I waited weeks to get preauthorization for my cancer pills (Abiraterone Acetate), which is a part of my doctor's treatment for prostate cancer that has spread. Not only has it delayed my treatment, but it caused me great stress and mental anguish, while all I should be worried about is fighting this awful illness. Something needs to be done about this!!!

I am a caregiver for my husband, and we are both 78 and 79. We are having a problem getting my husband's cancer medication, because of prior authorization. This has to stop!!! The doctor is prescribing this medication as part of his treatment, because he needs it to live!!! It doesn't matter how old you are, LIFE IS PRECIOUS!!! This prior authorization and decision is being made by people who are not doctors, and they are overriding what the doctor knows is the medication and treatment that you need to survive. [Prior authorization’s] causing great harm and unneeded stress to patients and loved ones when they're already fighting for their life against cancer that, without their prescribed medication, could and will kill them. Something needs to be done about this. IT IS SO WRONG!!!

I was injured in a vehicle accident resulting in debilitating migraines and head, neck, and facial pain from a brain injury. I suffered two years of headaches to “fail” enough treatments for insurance to approve a five-year-old treatment that’s now gold standard for migraine relief. After eight months of success on this medication, my employer switched Rx providers to a company that requires preauthorization and proof that this is the only medication that actually works. Why does Congress allow insurance companies to dictate treatment decisions over doctor’s orders, published evidence, and the patient experience? Why must Americans suffer under this broken system?

I have Medicaid, and I was denied a medication with preauthorization from a doctor. I have had migraines for the past 30 years, and she gave me 75 milligrams of Nurtec ODT (rimegepant). You take one pill every other day to prevent migraines. When I was taking them, for the first time in 30 years, I didn’t have a migraine. 

I suffer from them [migraines] probably about 17 to 20 days a month. They make me sick, as in vomiting, and I actually have to go to a dark room to lie down. It hurts so bad, and it also makes my eyes blurry. I understand it isn't a cheap medication, but it actually works. You don't know how that feels – to suffer from migraines and not have any [medication]. Then your insurance company denies your medicine that you know works and you can't afford it. Just like the time when I had to take a thyroid medication, .075 micrograms of Levothyroxine, and was denied by Medicaid. Seriously. So, what, am I supposed to not just take my thyroid medication? Which I'm not because I can't afford $107.00 a month for it. But even with the Nurtec ODT, insurers are denying someone’s medication, which the doctor says helps tremendously and isn't a generic brand. I have taken everything else that Medicaid said I could have, and it didn’t work...