Where to purchase meds out of pocket

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that, unfortunately, insurance coverage means that everyone (from your clinic to your pharmacy) jacks up their prices. My billing coordinator told me that for most people who have insurance, it’s mainly the drugs that will cause their lifetime max to be reached, rather than treatments. Since I had no coverage and paid out of pocket, there is no way I could verify that.

I've heard that too. I've seen people post that their med order almost entirely ate up their fertility benefits. If you only have a $20k limit or less, it might be worth while paying OOP for meds.


I'm part of the SGF FB group and people are always donating extra meds. If you're near MD, you can probably get a fair amount of meds for free. I personally ended up with probably $2k worth of leftover meds after my IVF cycle that I donated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freedom fertility pharmacy

They are amazing. (Although most of our meds are covered so don't know about pricing).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that, unfortunately, insurance coverage means that everyone (from your clinic to your pharmacy) jacks up their prices. My billing coordinator told me that for most people who have insurance, it’s mainly the drugs that will cause their lifetime max to be reached, rather than treatments. Since I had no coverage and paid out of pocket, there is no way I could verify that.

I've heard that too. I've seen people post that their med order almost entirely ate up their fertility benefits. If you only have a $20k limit or less, it might be worth while paying OOP for meds.


I'm part of the SGF FB group and people are always donating extra meds. If you're near MD, you can probably get a fair amount of meds for free. I personally ended up with probably $2k worth of leftover meds after my IVF cycle that I donated

Will you please post the name of the Facebook group? I would like to join.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Will you please post the name of the Facebook group? I would like to join.

Shady Grove Fertility Support

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that, unfortunately, insurance coverage means that everyone (from your clinic to your pharmacy) jacks up their prices. My billing coordinator told me that for most people who have insurance, it’s mainly the drugs that will cause their lifetime max to be reached, rather than treatments. Since I had no coverage and paid out of pocket, there is no way I could verify that.

This is very true. My health insurance outsourced pharmacy function to CVS and annual max for medication is $5,000. CVS pricing for infertility med was on average 200%-300% more expensive than OOP price. What I could get with the $5k was maybe $2k worth of med if I were to pay myself without insurance. For example, Gonal-F 450 was over $1,000 from CVS if I were to go through insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My clinic sent me to Avella pharmacy Arizona when their in-house pharmacy was out of Lupron last year. Avella's prices were the best Id seen for OOP purchases. Others I've used are Freedom Pharmacy and Alex Twin Pharmacy. In a pinch one cycle I needed an extra dose of Cetrotide and got a good price same-day at Grubbs Specialty on 17th and Church NW.

Just a heads-up, Avella recently restructured and they seem to be moving away from fertility and are raising their rates. The pharmacy I went with actually recommended I check out Avella since they were the cheapest, but that turned out to no longer be the case. Just for example, Gonal-F 300 pens cost $870 per pen. Yes, I double checked that was the cost for each dose.

I personally had a poor experience with WinFertility's customer service, and the prices they finally quoted me were no lower than the brick-and-mortar pharmacies in my area, so I didn't think they were a good deal. The might have better prices for your particular meds, though.

I ended up going with Integrity Rx in Arizona - they'll ship anywhere in the country. They were easy to work with and the pharmacist was wonderfully helpful.