Raptiva and Insurance

[gailandray]

My hubby is one of the unfortunate ones who experienced the horrific side effect of Raptiva that causes psoriasis to take on a life of its own and spread like dandelions in the spring! The fact that Genetech, a multibillion dollar company, has shown no interest in addressing the problems associated with such instances is disgusting! That's the bad news!

Here's the good news. Thanks to many of the people on this board for their encouragement, and to Joey from the advocacy department for his letter and supporting documents, our insurance handlers changed their initial ruling last week from denial to approval.

Here's a final word from me. The words "convenience and luxury" should not ever be used to deny people the health care they need to lead productive lives!!!!!! If I can ever help any of you in any way, please don't ever hesitate to contact me. I don't have psoriasis, but I do live in its wake as I step in the flakes with my bare feet, and roll in the flakes in my sleep!!!! This is all thanks to my hubby of 34 years whom I am still trying to get to post to this board. Maybe some of you veterans have a clue as to how I might get him "onboard."

gail

[rosee_posey]

Hi Gail,

Um, er...

According to your original post, Raptiva caused a major flare in your husband, and THEN you got insurance approval...um, for what? I can't imagine it was for another course of Raptiva ;)

Just confused, eh? :confused:

- rose

PS: About getting your hubby to post - forget it. Just drag him to the NPF conference next year, when he sees our bright and flaky faces in person, he'll realize that there's a REAL LIVE community out here and it may change his mind....

[gailandray]

Hi Rose,

I dragged my hubby this year, and I hope to drag him next year! Men!!! Can't live with them and can't live without them!

Anyway, in response to your insurance question - approval was for home UVB treatment.

gail

[chaimFL]

Good news Gail! UVB is a great treatment! Do you know if your husband will be getting narrowband or broadband?? Not that it really matters, but I do believe they say narrowband is the better of the two (not that broadband is bad).

UVB can be a slow boat at the beginning so don't get discouraged if results take a couple of months. Part of the reason for the potentially slow results is the need to build up exposure time from seconds to many minutes.

I hope this will bring some normalcy back to your lives!!

[gailandray]

Thanks for taking the time to inquire! We're going with the narrowband. Hope it works!

gail