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rebates for doctors precribing Neulasta, etc.
http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2006/1030/126.html
I don't know if this particular article has been posted here or not. I went through months of chemo without ever having been given Neulasta. My counts dropped but I did fine. I am on Medicaid. My thought here is for you to question the doctors. If you have good insurance, I have to wonder if you get it even if you don't need it. Other women on the same regimen were given Neulasta from the beginning, before their counts dropped. If the doctor benefits substantially from giving you a particular medicine, isn't that a conflict of interest?
You ( or your insurance company):
are billed for your doctor's visit
are billed for the chemotherapy
and then the doctors make a huge profit and get rebates from the pharmaceutical companies. I have no problem with doctors having a high standard of living, and I know that many of them are caring and committed but I am not comfortable that my standard of care is so influenced by the contributions of pharmaceutical companies.
Leslie
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In the world of destiny, there are no statistics.
Jan. 26- mammogram and ultrasound- suspicious lump
Mid-February- lumpectomy, infiltrating ductal carcinoma ~4.5 cm and a 1 cm DCIS, did not get clear margins, did not check lymph nodes
ER+/PR+, her2 +++, nuclear grade 3 of 3
February 20-PET scan showed something on liver. No biopsy.
March- Started carboplatin, herceptin, taxol on a four week cycle
May 3- Pet scan, with intent to do a biopsy, found nothing, liver or breast- no biopsy because there is nothing to biopsy
June 21- new onc, very concerned that there had been no biopsy,
June 18th-CAT scan, bone scan-negative
August 7th - Brain MRI-negative
August 9th- mastectomy, all pathology negative
January 2008 still NED! New oncologist -herceptin for full year after chemo- until July, and tamoxifen---negative scans since May '07
July 2008-Finished Herceptin!
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