What I Learned From Trying to Order IVF Meds

August was supposed to be our IVF month.  It has come and (almost) gone and I have yet to even start injections.  Our first hold up came when LabCorp botched my genetic testing  which put us back a few weeks (you can read about that here).  Well those tests FINALLY came back this Thursday and everything was fine.  My RE then called in my IVF drugs to the pharmacy.  The plan was to get those on Friday.  Apparently, the pharmacy my RE used does not take my insurance.  I have Blue Cross Blue Shield and they are very picky about which pharmacy they will use for infertility medication.  My RE then called everything in to another pharmacy which we later found out is also not approved my insurance.

I called my insurance and they told me that the only place I can go to is called Freedom Fertility.  I hope no one ever has to use them because they are awful.  I called them Thursday evening and they said they had not gotten my prescription even though it had been sent several hours ago.  I try again on Friday morning and they finally had it. They told me if I gave them my credit card they would process everything and get my meds to me by Saturday.  It sounded strange that they wanted my credit card information before they would even tell me the prices with insurance.  I told them I had a right to know the total cost of a purchase before I make it and I wanted a total before my card got charged.  They did not like that.

I told my RE and she said that Freedom Fertility uses very shady business practices.  They are the only pharmacist my RE knows of that will not give insurance prices to doctors over the phone.  Also, they make the cash price of a drug much higher than other places.  In some cases, using insurance with them is more expensive that paying out of pocket at other pharmacists. For example, 3 units of Follistim 600 is $1,655 at the original place my doctor sent my meds to (Success Meds), but at Freedom Fertility, it is $3,237.

Freedom Fertility told me they would not give me copays until my order went to processing.  I do not understand why they could not just look that up.  I told them I needed to get those copays ASAP.  They said they would call me back in an hour with that information.  After an hour came and went, I called them back and got the same story.  I continued to call them every hour with the same story.

At about 5:30, they called me with the copays.  They also told me that one drug, Lupron, needs prior-authorization. When I last spoke to my insurance company, I SPECIFICALLY asked if any of the drugs needed prior-authorization and they said no.  At this point, my RE is closed so I am out of luck.

Due to the holiday weekend, the earliest these drugs can be shipped is Tuesday with Wednesday arrival (this is assuming no other problems).  This might not be so bad but I recently learned our insurance may be ending soon (this is a long story I may get into later) so our time is limited.  I really want to run genetic testing on our eggs but that would turn my cycle into a FET and we simply may not have that much time.  In fact, we may not even have time for one fresh cycle, especially if we keep running into problems.  I do not think I have ever been this frustrated in my life.  This whole process has been awful and we haven’t even really started yet.  I just want to hide in my room and cry. – Jennie