Medicines

Hey, anybody know where to get medicines for kidney patients online?..stuff like Nephrovite, Levoxyl, and Renagel?

Be careful when you buy medicine online. Be sure the online pharmacy you deal with will actually ship you the medicines you order and that the medicines are safe. The National Association of Pharmacy Boards has a website with information for consumers about online pharmacies and a list of online pharmacies that the association has verified as legitimate at http://www.nabp.net/vipps/intro.asp.

If you have Medicare you may want to consider getting a Medicare-approved drug discount card. People on continuous Medicaid cannot get one of these cards. However, someone who is spending down income to qualify for Medicaid can apply and get one of these cards while spending down. People with lower incomes may qualify for a $600 credit on their card in 2004 and 2005 and the amount left at the end of this year carries over to next. You can read about these cards on the Medicare website at http://www.medicare.gov. Since you can only have one of the Medicare-approved cards, you should compare cards carefully, looking at which card saves you the most for your most expensive drugs. You can compare prices by calling 1-800-Medicare, using the Prescription Drug Assistance Program tool on the Medicare website, or by getting help from your State Health Insurance Assistance Program at http://www.medicare.gov/contacts/static/allStateContacts.asp.

If you have insurance coverage for medicines, these cards may not save you money. However, if you don’t, some cards can save a lot. I recently heard of an elderly non-renal patient who saved $800 with her card. Since you mentioned Renagel specifically, Genzyme, the maker of Renagel, has a program called REACH to help people with Medicare get this expensive medicine. With one of the cards linked with this program, you can get a month’s supply of Renagel for $5 or $25 a month (depends on income). You can read about this program and the Medicare-approved drug discount cards that honor this price at http://www.renagel.com/.

Oh my goodness, thank you so much for the tip!..God bless you!!