Medicare refuses to pay for moms cancer medicine as prescribed by her doctor.. what can we do?

She has cancer and was prescribed Sofran for her stomach upset, but medicare refuses to pay for it because it is expensive $800 for 7 pills, but it is the only thing that settles her stomach upset.

go to your local church and ask if there is any thing they can do. Try DHS, Hospice, go to the local Library see what they can tell you, And have her ask for her Dr if he has any Ideas... I know your mom is hurting I wish you the best.. Have a bake sale and car washes.. Get a group of friends to help you

Many pharmaceutical companies are now offering free or low cost meds for qualifying people. Ask your doctor for the name of the company that makes Sofran, and go to their website and ask for information about getting the drug free or at low cost.
It's unconventional, but some states allow marijuana for cancer patients. I'm not recommending it, but you may look into it as an alternative.

You can ask your pharmacist for paperwork to send to the drug company that makes the medicine...Some people will qualify for a program that will send her meds for free!!! If that don't work, ask the doctor for an alternative drug.

you can tell the cancer doctor that medicare wont pay most doctors can get it through the pharmacy if you cant pay its like samples..my cancer doctor gave me mine ..

Contact the drug company. The do have some programs for people with financial hardship.

Unfortunately asking Medicare to pay for these really expensive drugs will drive premiums so high that few will be able to afford them.

What is Medicare's reason for refusing. They may think the medicing is not nessecery. Get the doctor to help fight it or have the doctor submit a form to the manufacturer of the medicine. I have a friend that had a stroke. She cannot afford the high priced medicine, so the doctor submitted the form and now the medicine is delivered to the doctors office and my friend pays $0.00. I don't know what the form is. I could contact my friend VIA email and see if she will allow me to give you her email so you can talk to her or she will be in town next weekend and I can find out for you. good luck

Has your mother ever tried other anti-nausea meds like Compazine or Reglan? I had Hodgkin's Disease and I couldn't afford some of the cancer drugs either. The co-pay for my Zofran would have been $120. There are different organizations that will help people that need treatment. The Cancer Treatment Centers of America will usually invite a patient to the nearest cancer treatment center (they pay) and show you around and what they offer. They will work with most insurance companies and people that don't have insurance at all.

Another "tip" is if she gets too sick, return to her oncologists office and tell them that she is very sick and can't keep anything down. They will often give her Zofran through I.V. and it's not billed as a prescription, it's will be billed as an inpatient visit.

Both Zofran tablets and injectables are available free from GlaxoSmithKline's patient assistance program. If you mom is low income and can't afford the medicine then she should qualify. Her oncologist should be clearly aware of this program. Another option would be to have the Zofran given in an injection at the hospital or medical clinic and since the medicine is administered by injection then it would be covered by Medicare. Here is a link to the GSK patient assistance program.

http://www.rxassist.org/pap-info/company...