Posting for a mom on another page as she’s having issues with Optum. Please provide her with suggestions in the comments.“Easton gets home infusions EVERY week. Every week for over 2 years now, we’ve had the same nurse come in and provide care for my baby and infuse his life saving enzyme replacement medication. Life saving. Without this medication he would not be here!!!
Monday of last week we got a call from his nurse that Optum (the pharmacy that provides the meds, supplies, and nurse) has decided that basically since they don’t get enough “business” from enzyme replacements (well duh, because Pompe is a freaking RARE DISEASE), they will no longer be doing Enzyme Replacement Therapy.
What does that mean? We’ve got to find a new pharmacy with a new nurse and pray to God that they know what they’re doing when it comes to a drug like Lumizyme, which has a black box warning. But whatever. That’s fine. I don’t want a company taking care of my kid that’s only looking for dollar signs anyway. However, we will wholeheartedly miss his nurse. Easton has built a bond with her like no other and I’m so sad for him and us.
Now what really, really makes me angry is that these people are obviously so greedy that they have not had the decency to let us know any of this. Had Easton’s nurse not been kind enough to tell us, we still would not know and this is all taking place September 6th! I have not gotten a phone call, email, nothing. Nothing but crickets from Optum. And again, this is something he needs every week, at the very least, every other week to be able to function. I don’t even want to think about the detrimentals that would follow him going a long time without this medication.
Please say some prayers for us as we navigate through all of this along with many others that are in the same boat as us. I have seen posts from parents that are finding out about this in different ways. Optum has not told any of us anything, like none of it is important and our children’s well being isn’t at stake.”
just so that everyone is clear, OPTUM is a PBM and a mail order pharmacy and is owned by United Health – the same UNITED HEALTH that is endorsed by AARP. The above text from the web is a pretty bad example, but it is appears to be clear where Optum’s agenda is…. THEY DON’T GET ENOUGH BUSINESS… not that they are NOT MAKING A PROFIT and/or LOSING MONEY…
Another example that HEALTH CARE IS NOTHING MORE …NOTHING LESS THAN A FOR PROFIT BUSINESS
Filed under: General Problems
What is the disease? I’m going to take a guess based on the small amount of info that this patient is alpha-1? If so, there are a couple of pharmacies that deal only with alpha-1 infusions and this includes the nurses who do home infusions for it. The insurance company should be able to provide the information also. Lastly, the doctor will also know who does these infusions (there are a couple of different infusion medications that can be given for alpha-1).