I have BCBS and not a great policy and I got stuck for a bunch of bills the insurance company denied or just had a write off.Procrit and Neupogen were the shots the BCBS would only put a write off towards and stuck me with the bills. They are very expensive injections but , they do work and they did do the job they were designed to perform. If your RBC is low enough that your GI says to get a procrit shot then get it and worry later about making arrangements to pay it off. If it had not been for those shots ,which I had to do quite a few times, I would not of been able to finish my TX period. My attitude is, anymore, finish TX and be in debt or not finish TX and have a chance the virus come back and bite me in the A$$ again in more ways than one.I am in debt but , have worked it out with the hospital already and they will keep the debt on their books as long as I stick to my payment plan. I go tomorrow to have my 26th week labs taken, my Hepatologist likes a 14 day period between the last Ribavirin and the end of TX labs done. Sounds like your insurance company is worse than BCBS .Take Care of your health first worry about the money later... Good Luck.....

I hate insurance companies. What a bunch of jackasses. Procrit works. My Dad died from liver failure but without his weekly Procrit shot he wouldn't have had the quality of life he did before the endtime finally came. He also suffered from Leukemia too. The Procrit works wonders and I would do exactly what my GI recommended, especially since you're in treatment. Hopefully you'll only have to get the shot once.
I guess the insurance company would rather have you in the hospital and have to go through a transfusion so they can make more money then do anything reasonable for your health. (grumble)
Good luck and take care. I hope your viral load remains undetectable! :)

My hemoglobin got down to 10 and went up on it's own and then towards the end (3 weeks left) it went to 9.7. Procrit was not recommended by my GI. Women tend to have lower levels to begin with though.

My white cells dropped the first week but not low enough there either. I think the absolute neutrophil count is what they care about with the wbc's. Mine got down to 0.9. I don't think that is considered low enough for rescue meds. They stayed low but went up and down.

I would ask for additional blood tests to see if it is still dropping. That might even be cheaper for you than the procrit.
But of course talk to your doctor about this.

It does sound odd for them to make a claim about you needing a blood transfusion considering you have dropped from medication and not disease.

From what I have heard it works very well. Athletes were using it!

I am also 2b (or NOT 2b) too.

Good Luck!

The doctors still not sure if they wanna start me on the procrit or not but she already made me go through the hell of getting it! There's a Procrit assistance program you can try to go through if your insurer wont cover it. It may BE for the uninsured, I don't know, but it's worth a shot. Its the Janssen Ortho Patient Assistance Foundation patient assistance program. The # on the back of my card for general info is 1-800-652-6227. Hope all works out for you. These guys got my Procrit for me for FREE.

Hep C, Geno 1A, VU at 4th week of 48 week TX, still SVR at 7 weeks post TX.
Procrit started about 4 months into TX when previously okay levels started falling below okay.
Never brought it back to okay, but kept me just high enough to where I didn't have to quit TX.
My doc's office (including their GREAT insurance person) had to talk them into it as they initially denied it.
Best of Luck!

Much thanks to everybody and thier replys ! You have given me some food for thought , even though my brain is fogged in by TX !! LOL .
After spending a few hours on the phone with my HMO, I find out that there is a chance I still might get the PROCRIT under the INS. At least with a 50% co-pay (ouch) My RBC needs to be under 10 was what they said without actually saying it ( bunch of double talk ) I hate the B-S the INS CO put you through !
Another blood test next week . Guess i'll wait and see what this RBC is.

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