Meds from Indian?

[wmonique2]

Hello Oliver,

Entecort (budesonide) at walmart costs nearly $2,000 a month. I buy it from Canada at canadapharmacy.com for $58 for 100 pills (2 boxes of fifty each). They come from the U.K. Never had a problem. I had samples from my doc and followed by the meds I bought in England. Works just as well...I have no insurance, so I have to be creative...I get mesalamine (Lialda) from there too. Great service and prices. I have no complaints. Mesalamine costs nearly $1,000 at walmart...

Hope you find a solution. Wish you well.

[Gloria]

Hi Rosie,

I spent quite a lot of time on the Medicare site. I think this entire process is extremely confusing - and I have a master's degree and enjoy solving complex problems. I'm glad you help seniors because the average senior citizen surely needs the assistance.

What I found is the lower the monthly insurance premium, the higher the cost of Entocort to the individual. Also, because it is so expensive, the doughnut hole trigger is achieved very quickly. Here are some prices from my plan for a one month supply:

Pharmacy - OptumRx (mailorder), 90 Entocort EC pills: I pay $1021.70, plan pays $3388.79. Total cost: $4410.49 (doughnut hole is reached after total cost reaches $2,930).

Pharmacy - Target, 90 Entocort EC pills: I pay $270, plan pays $4427.22, Total cost: $4697.22

Pharmacy - OptumRx (mailorder), 90 Generic Budesonide pills: I pay $482.90, plan pays $2659.18. Total cost: $3142.08.

Once I reach the doughnut hole, I have to pay the full cost until the cost of the medication reaches $4700. Once in the catastrophic area, I finally get some relief, but by then I've spent several thousand dollars. I've been desperately trying to get off of Entocort for five years for this reason. I saw this coming and have been stocking up on it.

After much research, I finally settled on a plan with the lowest monthly premium and no deductible for this year - I went on it in April. Luckily, I still have enough Entocort to last me for one more year at my dosage.

I'm going to order some Entocort from India before I decide on next year's plan. I'm a little nervous after reading about Mary's experience. I have a debit card which I will load with just enough money and use it to pay for the drug. My PCP is of Indian descent and got his degree from India. He discouraged me from buying medications from India.

[ant]

Dear M

So I just called my credit card and they said that potentially fraudulent payment was coming out of Korea,

I order from India for delivery in Hong Kong and have had no problems.

However, I have, on occasions, had my visa card refused (nothing to do with India or meds) because someone stole my visa identity. A key proof of fraud is if you are in one country when a "purchase" is made in another country (not on on-line purchase which can be explained but with a bricks and mortar merchant). Happened a lot about ten years ago when I traveled to Indonesia.

I have had my bank telephone me to ask what country I am in and if it does not square with the card purchase (quite rightly) my card gets cancelled (and I am not liable to pay the fraudulent purchase). I then have to get a new card from the bank.

This is a rather long winded way to say that it is probably not the Indian merchant that is the problem here. This is either a real fraud (where someone is using your card identity to buy things in Korea) or an overcautious bank/card company.

I would ask for more details from your credit card company/bank and ask them to verify if the Indian merchant is linked to the Korea issue. The Indian company is not a fly-by-night operation and would have its international on-line business destroyed in an instance if it was found guilty of credit card fraud.

Hope you get this sorted, best Ant

[tex]

Thanks Ant,

You did a much better job than I did, explaining what probably happened.

Tex